The new coronavirus is spreading all over the world and is a global threat to mankind. As one of the worst-hit countries in Europe, Italy has already felt the impact of the virus in every aspect, including the country's favorite sport, football.

Zhang Kangyang (also known as Steven Zhang), president of Inter Milan, Serie A, Italy's top football league, shared his views on the epidemic in the country with CGTN.

Inter are one of the three most successful clubs in Serie A history and Zhang, who oversees the organization, believes that they have the responsibility to speak to the society so people understand that safety and public health is the most important and critical thing.

Zhang is not only boss of Inter, but also president of Suning International, a Chinese e-commerce giant that owns Nerazzurri. This part of his identity works as an advantage that helps both Zhang and Inter get access to China's experience of dealing with the virus.

"…as experience we learn from China, because we have our main business in China, and our employees, managers in China, they are dealing with the issues in the past weeks or months, and with huge improvements, which we learnt a lot of things to help us deal with the situation in Italy," said Zhang to CGTN's Nawied Jabarkhyl.

One of the key prevention policies against the virus is to avoid public gathering events. As a result, more and more Serie A games have been postponed. For example, the one between Inter and Juventus, which will probably decide who will win this season's Serie A's title, was delayed and has to take place behind closed doors.

Zhang admitted that a game with no one watching in the stadium will be less exciting and hurt the ticket sales. However, he also pointed out that such moves are necessary because they can help lower public risk.

"Overall, for a company taking steps in situations like this, we don't really need to think about this (impact on game excitement and ticket sales) too much at this moment. Because we believe once the situation of the virus gets recovered, the consumer confidence and consumer behaviors will recover soon."

One not-so-pleasant part of Italian football is racism, which is like a tumor that is hard to kill and keeps showing itself. Zhang said that Inter has the responsibility to act against racism and contribute to promoting positive energy.

"We did a lot of digital content…to make sure that people understand this philosophy…so far, it has been really effective. People are interacting with us, collaborating with us, and spreading this positive energy round the country, around the world."