Santagiulia is because of host most of the largest ice hockey fixtures on the Video games, together with the boys’s and girls’s gold medal matches.

The primary match is because of be held there on Thursday, 5 February, when hosts Italy face France of their first recreation of the ladies’s competitors.

Nonetheless, the stadium, lower than per week earlier than that recreation, is much from able to host matches.

The stadium has been the centre of considerations all through the build-up to the Video games, together with leading to a boycott warning from the Nationwide Hockey League (NHL).

The rink in Milan, accredited by the Worldwide Ice Hockey Federation, is shorter than the minimal requirement within the NHL, resulting in strategies there might be a rise in high-speed collisions. The standard of the ice has additionally been questioned.

“Clearly, if the gamers really feel that the ice is unsafe, we’re not going to play,” NHL deputy commissioner Invoice Daly mentioned in November. “It is so simple as that.”

The NHL mentioned it was “happy” with the check occasion on the enviornment in January, though that didn’t move with out incident. Throughout the occasion there was a brief delay whereas a small gap within the ice needed to be repaired.

Santagiulia is considered one of two ice hockey venues for the Video games, with the Milano Rho Area staging some group-stage matches.

The Rho Area, a brief venue constructed within the Fiera Milano exhibition centre, has a capability of 5,800 – 6,000 fewer than Santagiulia.

BBC Sport visited all 4 venues within the Milan Cluster which can host occasions through the Video games, which formally run between 6 and 22 February.

In addition to the ice hockey venues, velocity skating will happen at a brief venue in Fiera Milano to the west of the town, whereas quick observe and determine skating are at Unipol Discussion board on the southern outskirts.

The Worldwide Olympic Committee (IOC) has been contacted for remark.