Supercoppa Italiana set for December 22nd in Doha, Qatar

Despite normally being played before the first Serie A match of the season, we have yet to see the Supercoppa Italiana played this year. Since the match was supposed to be in Beijing, Napoli requested the date be moved to the winter break as the originally scheduled day for the match fell in the middle of their Champions League Playoff tie against Athletic Bilbao, and they didn't want the long travel to affect their ability to qualify for the Champions League.

The FIGC assented to the request without much public hand-wringing, but that wound up not being the last of the problems. The Supercoppa match was tentatively scheduled for Christmas Eve in Beijing, but both Napoli and Juventus objected to making their players and staff fly halfway around the world and be separated from their families for Christmas. That's lead to over a month of planning and negotiating, and finally a conclusion has been reached.

This season's Supercoppa Italiana will be played in Doha, Qatar on December 22nd. It's a good compromise to the previous issues; it retains a high-money income potential for the FIGC (and the clubs), but also dramatically shortens the necessary travel and will get the players and coaches home in plenty of time for Christmas.

Hopefully Napoli fare better in this round of the Italian Super Cup than they did the last time they faced Juventus; in 2012, Napoli took a 2-1 lead in to halftime in Beijing, but a late penalty for Juve was converted, and Napoli had two players and then-manager Walter Mazzarri sent off between then and the start of extra time. From there it was only a matter of time for Juve to score again, and they did so twice to take the title.

Let's not have a repeat of that day in Qatar, eh?