Inter-Milan caught in Catch-22 situation

Article posted by Coliseum, May 10^th, 2023

Image: San Siro, Jose Luis Hidalgo R., CC BY 2.0

The Mayor of Milan (Italy) Beppe Sala has handed down three months deadline to the Serie A clubs Inter Milan and A.C. Milan vis à vis their response to the new common stadium plans.

‘sempreinter.com’ stated that Mayor Sala has set a deadline for the clubs to respond regarding the land on which their planned common home stadium will sit.

Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in the English-speaking countries, is an Italian professional football club based in Milan, Lombardy (Italy). Inter is the only Italian side to have always competed in the top flight of Italian football since its debut in 1909.

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AC Milan or simply Milan is a professional football club in Milan, Italy, founded in 1899. The club has spent its entire history, with the exception of the 1980-1981 and 1982-1983 seasons, in the top flight of Italian football, known as Serie A since 1929-1930.

Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, commonly known as San Siro, is a football stadium in the San Siro district of Milan, Italy, which is the home of A.C. Milan and Inter Milan. It has a seating capacity of 80,018, making it one of the largest stadiums in Europe, and the largest in Italy.

The two clubs tried to work on a common project that meant demolishing San Siro and replacing it with a new stadium in the same place, as other European clubs have done in the past years. The project was approved in December 2021 when Inter and AC Milan announced ‘The Cathedral’ had been selected for their new stadium. It would also see a “reconfiguration of the area in the San Siro neighborhood, currently occupied by the Meazza Stadium (another name for the San Siro), through the creation of a new district dedicated to sport and leisure”.

However, many things changed in the past year. A.C. Milan was sold to the RedBird Capital Partners (investment service in New York, US), who consider the stadium a priority while Inter are facing a quite difficult financial situation under Chinese owner Steven Zhang the past two years. On top of that, things are not moving quickly with the City of Milan which still has to give the final green light for the common project that would mark the end of the San Siro era. Also, Milan will host the 2026 Winter Olympic Games and the opening ceremony will take place at the San Siro. In any case, even if the new project will be approved, before that day the stadium won’t be touched at all.

Moreover, A.C. Milan is firm on going ahead with building its own standalone stadium in the in the La Maura area in Milan, Italy.

‘sempreinter.com’ further stated that it will take some time before a clear picture emerges on the Inter-Milan new home ground issue – whether they will settle for ‘The Cathedral’ or will go their separate ways and build standalone home digs of their own.

The latest development is that in a recent meeting which was attended by the A.C. Milan owner Gerry Cardinale, it emerged that the likelihood of the ‘Rossoneri’ building its own individual home venue at the La Maura area seems a remote possibility.

At the same time, the A.C. Milan and the Inter Milan coming together to build their common home arena in place of the existing San Siro also looks very unlikely as ‘The Cathedral’ project has faced too many stumbling blocks and the ‘Rossoneri’ is running out of patience.

However, Mayor Sala is hopeful that the two clubs will give a clear picture as regards their future home venue plans within the next few months.

Both the teams are in no mood to stay on in their present residence – the iconic San Siro Stadium as the venue is aging and is also not helping the clubs to keep the cash registers jingling.

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