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Timing has never been my strong suit. With nothing of note popping up in the Romaverse today, we decided to start our Tuesday coverage with the news that Roma may extend Paulo Fonseca's contract beyond it's current June 2021 expiration date. Much of the impetus behind that pending extension stems from the club's current form: unbeaten in 18 of their last 20 matches; a run we've been placing an asterisk on since week one when Roma's 1-1 draw with Hellas Verona quickly became a 3-0 defeat thanks to a clerical error.
Not long after that match, Roma were stripped of their draw due to an error in which Amadou Diawara was incorrectly listed as an U-22 player, despite turning 23-years-old over the summer. According to league officials, Roma were notified of this mistake prior to the match yet failed to correct the error, leading to the point deduction.
Naturally, Roma appealed the decision, which looked even dodgier once the man ostensibly responsible for the error, former General Secretary Pantaleo Longo, took a job WITH Verona not long after making this mistake.
With no discernable advantage earned from this error, Roma's case seemed reasonably strong; mistakes happen and Diawara being left off the senior player list didn't impact the scoreline one iota, but Roma's hopes of redemption were just dealt a swift and decisive blow.
Moments ago, the FIGC ruled that Roma's appeal as “unfounded” and upheld the decision to award three points to Hellas Verona. Since Verona weren't able to complete their upset of AC Milan over the weekend, Roma remain two points ahead of the Mastiffs on the table, so the damage isn’t quite as severe as it could have been, but that one extra point has been the difference between Roma being tied for third with Napoli and being tied with Sassuolo for second place.
One point can and has made the difference between success and frustration in the past, but it certainly seemed like Roma had a solid case to win that point back, but it wasn't meant to be.