Simonelli: ‘Supercoppa exporting best of Italian football’ | OneFootball

New Lega Serie A President Ezio Simonelli insists playing the Supercoppa Italiana Inter-Atalanta in Saudi Arabia means ‘exporting the best of what Italian football can offer.’

It kicks off at the Al-Awwal Park Stadium in Riyadh at 19.00 GMT.

You can follow all the build-up and action as it happens on the Liveblog.

This is the second year using the Final Four format, so there are two semi-finals featuring the winners of Serie A and the Coppa Italia against the runners-up in both those competitions.

The winning teams of Inter-Atalanta and Juventus-Milan then go head-to-head for the trophy on Monday, all played in Riyadh.

Supercoppa played in Saudi Arabia

Supercoppa Italiana logo Italian Supercup

“We are proud to be here presenting a match between the two top teams in Serie A right now,” Simonelli told Sport Mediaset.

“The fans can consider themselves fortunate. We are exporting the best of what Italian football can offer.”

There has been criticism of the decision to stage the tournament in Saudi Arabia, with Italy following in the footsteps of Spain.

“Compared to five years ago, we have seen Saudi Arabia make big steps towards opening up to the West. Football can be a vehicle to open up the world and build bridges between different continents.”

The plan originally had been to hold a minute’s silence for former Torino star Aldo Agroppi, who died today, but that will now be organised in Serie A this weekend instead.