Yesterday it was Bologna's turn. By the end of the month - next week, therefore - Cagliari Calcio will appear before the Euro 2032 stadium working group in the offices of the Minister of Sport Andrea Abodi, who coordinates the operations within the Interinstitutional Committee created last year year after Italy's candidacy (with Turkey) to host the future edition of the European Championship.
The topic on the agenda will obviously be the new stadium that the club must build in Sant'Elia and which, at the behest of the Municipality, will take the name of Gigi Riva (plus Unipol): we will talk about the state of progress of the design , authorizations, expenses and, above all, available funds. The meeting, for the rossoblù side, will be attended by the president Tommaso Giulini, the managing director Carlo Catte and the director of the business and media sector, Stefano Melis. The intervention of the Minister of Finance, Giancarlo Giorgetti, who participated in the meeting with Bologna for the new Dall'Ara together with the number one of the Football Federation Gabriele Gravina and the representatives of the Institute for Sports Credit, of Sace, cannot be ruled out. Invimit and Cassa Depositi e Prestiti.
«For the Government the objective is to contribute in a significant and concrete way to the modernization of the stadium system», said Minister Abodi this morning, on the sidelines of a meeting on sport organized by Il Foglio at San Siro, « what we will do by evaluating the possibility of setting up an equity fund, a real estate fund and fueling the guarantee system with the reduction of interest in a very short timeframe".
Furthermore, «where necessary, the appointment of a commissioner and a rule that makes the administrative process for these infrastructures which are strategic for Italy even more fluid and efficient are currently being evaluated. By the end of the month we will meet the Municipality of Florence and Fiorentina, Cagliari and Parma", added the minister.
Giulini spoke on the topic of the stadium about ten days ago: «We started in 2017 with the construction of the temporary stadium – the Unipol Domus – in a very short time, 120 days, only with our own efforts, I think a record in Italy», he underlined , «from there we moved forward quickly, hoping to complete the construction of the definitive stadium within 4-5 years. We spent several millions on the various projects, but unfortunately we found ourselves faced with an infinite number of obstacles of all kinds, especially bureaucratic."
«The problem», added the number one of the rossoblù club, «is that we are faced with a country system where the main Italian banks do not finance the world of football, because the world of football is a non-bankable world, being a world of risk; and if the main Italian banks don't finance the stadiums I believe that very few will be built in Italy."
The fund announced by the minister could therefore be useful. Also to respond to the doubts of the Cagliari president, who concluded:
«I wonder how it will be possible, at this rate, to host the 2032 European Championships in Italy. I think it will be very complicated."
And the president will talk about this with the minister.
Enrico Fresu