After Arsenal withdrew from the Florida Cup, Inter Milan have now followed suit:
https://twitter.com/Inter/status/1417897910704947200?s=19
Their statement said, “FC Internazionale Milano announces that it will not travel to the USA for the Florida Cup in consideration of the risks that, at present, international travel entails as a result of the evolution of the spread of the pandemic, risks that have already caused the withdrawal from participation from part of Arsenal FC.
19 July 2021
On Tuesday, a report in Italy claimed that Inter Milan had asked to withdraw from the Florida Cup due to health concerns over the spread of the Delta variant but it seems this is not true, at the time of writing at least.
As the Delta variant takes hold globally, it was reported by Corriere dello Sport that Inter Milan had asked the organisers to be allowed to withdraw from the tournament for “health reasons”, despite signing a contract that includes financial penalties for not taking part.
CDS added, “Milan-today it will be clear whether or not Inter will participate in the Tour in Florida. Despite the signed contract (with penalties) and the scheduled take-off for Thursday (Sunday match with Arsenal), the club asked the organisers to be exempted from leaving for health reasons.
“Translated, the spread of the Delta variant, to be faced in a week with displacements and events. The orientation is to stay in Italy; the alternative is to cancel commercial events and leave with a small delegation.”
Daily Cannon sources, however, believe that Inter Milan are still planning to participate in the tournament, albeit with reduced external duties, as noted above, and a tighter bubble to ensure their risk is minimised.
Arsenal are due to play Inter Milan on Sunday at the Camping World Stadium in Florida. Only 47% of people are fully vaccinated in the US state and Republican governor of the state, and Trump wannabe, Ron DeSantis, suspended all local restrictions and mandates as far back as May before invalidating them permanently on 1 July.
Cases in the state, however, are up 190% over the past 14 days, with 34 deaths reported on 18 July along with 6,493 new cases.
Compare those figures to those back home, where 55% of the English public are concerned about restrictions finally being eased on 19 July as cases rise 43.3% over the past seven days.
Given the fluid nature of this pandemic, things can, of course, always change. As it stands, though, the tournament seems set to continue.