Soccer

Pro Piacenza hammered 20-0 with a team of just seven players

Serie C club have already forfeited four games this season due to financial trouble

The team-sheet from the Serie C match between Cuneo and Pro Piacenza. Photograph: @GiovaAlbanese/Twitter

Will Unwin
Sun Feb 17 2019 - 17:02

Serie C’s bottom club Pro Piacenza have endured a tough season, resulting in point deductions and forfeiting matches but their latest setback was almost beyond belief as they were only able to field seven players in a 20-0 defeat at mid-table Cuneo.

Before Sunday, Pro Piacenza had forfeited four games and faced being thrown out of the league if they had failed to complete another match. To avoid that fate, they scraped together seven teenagers – the minimum number of players required – who were willing to be lambs to the slaughter for the unenviable task of taking on 11 professionals. In addition to a lack of players, there were no coaching staff on hand for Pro Piacenza, meaning their teenage captain also had to take on the role of manager.

Their previous four fixtures have resulted in the opposition being awarded 3-0 wins due to the club’s inability to field a team. In the last match they were able to compete in, they lost 3-0 with Pro Piacenza having two players sent off in injury-time.

Pro Piacenza’s squad and staff have reportedly not been paid since August last year, causing them to rip up their contracts. It is thought employees are owed around €500,000 by the club and face an Italian Football Federation hearing to decide their fate on March 11th, which might see this game wiped from this history books anyway.

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Cuneo scored 15 goals in the first-half, an impressive feat for a side who had only netted 18 times in their previous 24 outings in the Italian third tier. Hicham Kanis achieved a hollow double hat-trick within 36 minutes, while Edoardo Defendi scored five, including a hat-trick inside 16 minutes - not to be left out, Francesco De Stefano completed another in the second half.

Pity was taken by the hosts after the break, scoring just five more as the match finished 20-0. – Guardian service