Napoli’s potential title decider delayed

Napoli's home game against Salernitana, which could seal their first title since the Diego Maradona era, has been moved forward a day to Sunday for public safety reasons, Serie A said.

Runaway leaders Napoli could secure the club's third title and first since 1990 this weekend if they beat Salernitana and second-placed Lazio drop points against Inter Milan at San Siro.

The Naples side were initially scheduled to play Salernitana on Saturday, with Lazio visiting Inter a day later which could see Napoli fans celebrating outside the stadium in Milan.

Napoli will now take on Salernitana at 1300 GMT on Sunday following the change, less than an hour after the score at the San Siro (1030 GMT kick off) is known.

Wild partying was expected in tourist hotspot Naples on Saturday, when Napoli was originally due to play Salernitana, raising security concerns.

Naples Prefect Claudio Palomba said on Thursday that the match would be pushed back a day as "the need arose to avoid events overlapping in order to help the police".

A major comic book convention is also being staged in Naples on Saturday, expected to draw legions of people to the city.

"Had we kept the match on Saturday we would have had to double our resources and for that reason we have adopted a number of measures," Palomba added.

Napoli's following game at Udinese has also been pushed back from Tuesday to Thursday.

Napoli have 78 points from 31 games, with Lazio in second on 61 and seven games remaining.