Italian Serie A &amp;&nbsp;B players will be coming to work a bit late this weekend.&nbsp; This time&nbsp;their&nbsp;bosses will not mind, in fact they will support it.&nbsp; In a statement released by the Italian Players’ Association (AIC – Associazione Italiana Calciatori), players from the Top 2 flights of Italian football will come 15 minutes late to the next round matches.&nbsp;
This weekend, players will arrive 15 minutes late to their respective matches in protest of&nbsp;punishments levied by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on Daniele Mannini and Davide Possanzini.&nbsp; The pair were each banned for a year on Thursday after they both arrived late for a drug test after a Serie B match in December 2007 while playing for Brescia.&nbsp;
Mannini &amp; Possanzini were originally given 15 day bans by the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI – Comitato Olimpico Nazionale Italiano) for coming late to the drug test even though the&nbsp;Italian Football Association,&nbsp;(FGIC – Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio),&nbsp;cleared the duo of any wrongdoing.&nbsp;&nbsp;The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) stepped in and appealed to CAS&nbsp;for tougher sentences and got them.&nbsp;
Some of the words being used to describe the punishments were “scandalous,”&nbsp; “excessive,” &amp; “colossal injustice.” &nbsp;Brescia Chairman Gino Corioni once again stated that&nbsp; players were delayed because of his decision to scold the team after&nbsp;suffering a&nbsp;3-0 home defeat to Chievo.
As a result of the scolding,&nbsp;the pair missed the half-hour deadline for submitting samples. 
Corioni stressed that a doping official, whose job&nbsp;is to keep constant sight of&nbsp;chosen players,&nbsp;declined an invitation&nbsp;into the locker room.&nbsp; Napoli is especially hit hard by this&nbsp;decision as Mannini has been an important part of their season as they compete for&nbsp;a&nbsp;European spot.&nbsp;
No word on when an&nbsp;appeal or action against&nbsp;the CAS decision will be made but undoubtedly lawyers from the AIC, the clubs,&nbsp;and the players will do something.&nbsp;&nbsp;This drama is far from over so let’s hope that&nbsp;in the end justice is served.

Italian Players To Protest This Weekend

Italian Players To Protest This Weekend - World Soccer Talk

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Italian Players To Protest This Weekend