Coronavirus: SPAL beat Parma behind closed doors after minister's call to suspend league delays kick off - in pictures

Players told to go back and wait in their respective dressing rooms as they awaited a decision on whether the game was to go ahead

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  Parma's players return to the dressing room as they wait to learn if their Serie A match against SPAL will go ahead after the Italian sports minister's calls for the league to be suspended due to the outbreak of coronavirus affecting much of northern Italy. EPA

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  Parma's Riccardo Gagliolo (R) and SPAL's Thiago Cionek in action during the Serie A match at Ennio Tardini stadium in Parma. EPA

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  SPAL's Andrea Petagna scores the only goal from the penalty spot. EPA

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  Andrea Petagna (C) celebrates with his teammates. EPA

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  Parma's assistant coach Andrea Tarozzi. EPA

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  Parma's sport director Daniele Faggiano (L) and SPAL's sport director Davide Vagnati before the match. EPA

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  Parma's Bruno Alves (L) and SPAL's Mirko Valdifiori (R) in action. EPA

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  Parma's Matteo Darmian (R) and SPAL's Arkadiusz Reca (L) in action. EPA

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  Parma's Gaston Brugman shields the ball. EPA

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  SPAL coach Luigi Di Biagio. EPA

SPAL beat Parma 1-0 in the first closed-door match of the Serie A season, but the game faced a long delay after scenes of confusion before kick off.

Italy’s sports minister Vincenzo Spadafora had called for the league to be suspended amid the coronavirus outbreak just minutes before the start of the match.

Spadafora's demand caused panic, with both teams waiting in the tunnel at the Stadio Ennio Tardini for the 3.30pm (UAE) kick off before being told to go back and wait in their respective dressing rooms as they awaited a decision on whether the game was to go ahead.

The game eventually started 75 minutes later than planned, and SPAL earned a valuable three points thanks to a second-half Andrea Petagna spot kick, which lifted them off bottom and into 19th place on 18 points, two ahead of Brescia.

All Serie A matches will be played without fans attending until April 3 as part of government measures put in place to try and stop the spread of the virus.

There was confusion over whether the rest of the days matches - including second-place Juventus' match against third-placed Inter Milan in Turin - would be played after Spadafora said that it made "no sense" to play matches while people in Italy were being asked "to make enormous sacrifices to prevent the spread of the virus".

Spadafora wrote his message after the president of Italian footballers' association (AIC) Damiano Tommasi had pushed for the season to be suspended, and Italian media reported on a draft strike motion from the AIC that was not acted upon.

Tommasi had tweeted on Sunday that "stopping football is the most useful thing for our country right now".

"The teams to cheer are playing in our hospitals, in emergency rooms," Tommasi wrote.

Over 230 people have died from the COVID-19 in the last two weeks, with over 5,800 people diagnosed with the virus.

On Saturday, Italian media obtained copies of draft legislation that ordered the quarantining of the entire Lombardy region in northern Italy, the worst affected by the coronavirus outbreak.

Lombardy's capital Milan is Italy's economic heart, and the region is home to some 10 million people.

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