Pro Piacenza Evicted From Serie C After Losing 20-0

By Max Wise

Crisis-hit Italian Serie C club Pro Piacenza have been expelled from the league after they capped a miserable campaign with a 20-0 loss to fellow relegation rivals AC Cuneo 1905 on Sunday.

Pro Piacenza are in serious financial crisis after their first team players and staff embarked on a strike with the club failing to pay their wages since August 2018.

Pro Piacenza’s three previous opponents, Pro Vercelli, Juventus II and Siena were all awarded 3-0 victories after Piacenza failed put together a team to face them in the league.

However on Sunday, they managed to field just seven teenagers from their youth team, including captain Nicola Carigliano, who doubled as manager for the day, to take on AC Cuneo 1905.

In fairness, their numerical disadvantage also counted against them as they failed to produce a single shot in the entire 90 minutes and they were down 16-0 at half-time.

The League’s governing body ruled on Monday that some of the players Pro Piacenza fielded were unregistered and fined them €30,000 as a punishment, whiles their results this season have been cancelled and no longer taken into account on the league table.

"We would like to underline, in addition to the conscious, multiple and fraudulent violations performed by Pro Piacenza, the unacceptable behaviour of the club who, mortifying the very essence of sport competition, forced both the people included on their own teamsheet and their opponents' players to take part in a farcical match from a technical point of view [as well as physically dangerous in the case of those not prepared from a competitive point of view]," the Lega Pro statement said.

Sunday’s 25-0 loss has also been revised to a forfeited 3-0 defeat for failing to observe league rules.