The thrilling five-a-side tournament for the new stadiums. How to play

In Naples, the (almost) broad coalition led by Mayor Gaetano Manfredi and Regional President Roberto Fico has focused on the redevelopment of the Maradona Stadium, using public funds (200 million), in order to bid for the 2032 European Championships. The city has already submitted the project to UEFA and hopes to be among the five Italian candidates to host the football championship, which Italy was forced to share with Turkey precisely due to a lack of suitable sports facilities (it has only one, Juventus’s stadium in Turin). In Rome, Mayor Roberto Gualtieri is pushing hard for the ‘bipartisan’ project for Roma’s new stadium, to be built in the Pietralata district, the cost of which (estimated at one billion) will be borne entirely by the private sector – namely the American owners of the Roman football club, the Friedkin family. In Bologna, the exhibition centre and the city’s football club have signed a letter of intent to build a new multi-purpose stadium as an alternative to the refurbishment of the glorious Dall’Ara. Here, the approach is a public-private partnership – the Bolognese ‘third way’. The mayor, Matteo Lepore, has welcomed the proposal, but this has drawn criticism from the Greens, who accuse him of promoting ‘over-development’.

These are just a few examples of the competition over stadiums that has flared up in the run-up to the European Championships, as the shortlist of five host cities is due to be finalised very soon – there is even talk of October. Furthermore, six years is not a particularly long time to complete costly and complex sports facilities and infrastructure, which must comply with strict UEFA regulations – first and foremost accessibility via public transport, but also new logistical requirements such as one toilet for every 200 spectators. “For local councils, this is both a planning and a political challenge, given the nature of the decisions it entails and the impact on the city,” Marco Leone, senior adviser at Nomisma and an expert in property and stadiums – which are becoming a new frontier for international investment in Italy – tells Il Foglio. As it happens, the main local authorities involved are all centre-left: Naples, Rome, Bologna, but also Florence and Milan. And they would all like to be among the shortlist of five out of the total of 16 bids currently under consideration. “Time is running out and there is a marked acceleration in the projects,” continues Leone. “The solution which, in my view, has the best chance of delivering a sports facility to high quality standards and within the required timeframe is one based on the public-private partnership model typical of the Anglo-Saxon world. In Italy, the project financing model allows works of public interest to be carried out even with exclusively private capital. However, each city is making different choices, partly based on its starting conditions. Milan has decided to sell the stadium and maximise the proceeds, with two clubs – Milan and Inter – as counterparties, who will bear the cost of investing in the new facility as well as taking on the design and construction responsibilities within the required timeframe. In contrast, Naples has chosen to invest a substantial sum of public money, which is, to say the least, unusual in this sector. Perhaps 200 million could have been spent on healthcare and roads, leaving it to the private sector to invest in the stadium in return for a long-term management concession, as Rome is doing. It is also true that this approach is viable when an agreement is reached with the football club and the club is willing to finance the project.”

In fact, as lawyer Marco Monaco, a partner at the law firm Advant Nctm, also explains, Naples did not have many alternatives other than to remain excluded from the list of host cities, given that Calcio Napoli has not yet submitted a project accompanied by a feasibility study in accordance with the provisions of the 2021 Stadi Act. “And yet,” continues Monaco, “this law, which facilitates the construction of buildings complementary to sports infrastructure, effectively offers private investors a reasonable business opportunity. Furthermore, the introduction of the role of stadium commissioner will ensure extremely streamlined administrative and planning procedures. In practice, stadiums have been treated as infrastructure projects of national strategic interest and, as such, can proceed via a fast-track process.” There has recently been some friction between Aurelio De Laurentiis and Mayor Manfredi precisely because of the council’s decision to focus on the Maradona Stadium, where Napoli will be able to continue playing in future, albeit by paying a higher rent than the €800,000 per year it currently pays (compared to the several million paid by clubs in Milan and Rome). “An interesting example is that of Como,” observes Leone of Nomisma. “The council and Como Calcio have just presented a project for the redevelopment of the Sinigaglia stadium, capitalising on its geographical location next to the lake. It is clear that the football club’s owners have recognised the potential of a property investment that capitalises on the international appeal of this location.” It goes without saying, as the French would put it, that the Hartono brothers, Como’s Indonesian owners, are extremely wealthy entrepreneurs. But that is precisely where the difference lies, according to Leone: in the ability of local authorities to leverage their role as public bodies with decision-making and policy-setting powers to involve private investors in the construction and management of facilities. This is an approach also adopted by the mayor of Florence, Sara Funaro, for the redevelopment of the Franchi Stadium in collaboration with Fiorentina Calcio.

Will Italy manage to have five stadiums approved by UEFA that meet the required standards? “I hope so,” concludes Mr Monaco. “I recall that one of the most complicated requirements to meet is the distance between the stands and the pitch, which should not exceed 10 metres. For now, the only stadium certain to meet all the criteria is the one in Turin; two or three other projects seem to be well on track, but if we fail to reach five, we cannot rule out the possibility that the Olimpico might be reinstated, bringing Rome’s total number of bids to two.”