Serie A football matches will be played behind closed doors until at least April 3 due to coronavirus concerns, the Italian government have confirmed.
Several Italian games have already been postponed, including the Coppa Italia semi-finals between Juventus and AC Milan and Napoli vs Inter Milan.
The government have now taken proceedings one step further, the decision confirmed at a press conference on Wednesday evening.
It is not just domestic football impacted, however, with Atalanta’s Champions League match against Valencia also set to be played in an empty Mestalla stadium in Spain.
Italy has been highly affected by coronavirus. A total of 107 people have now been killed by the disease in Italy, with more than 3000 cases confirmed across the country.
Italian sports minister Vincenzo Spadafora previously said they were moving towards the decision to close the stadiums to the public, and the government - in an effort to prevent the virus from spreading further - have now done so.
The decision has received support from those in Italy, including Inter Milan president Steven Zhang.
Speaking before the official decision, Zhang told BBC Sport: "Closing doors but continuing matches is the right thing to do.
"From a moral standpoint, as president of a football club and a manager in an organisation who are involved in these events, I just cannot accept this kind of proposal and I cannot let public health be put in this difficult condition.
"It doesn't matter what kind of game it is, it doesn't matter if it was 24 hours or 48 hours, we knew the situation was not going to be gone.”
It remains to be seen whether there will be further disruptions and postponements, but with the fixture list falling further behind schedule, time is running out should matches need to be rescheduled.
