Inter-Milan discuss San Siro rejig feasibility

Article posted by Coliseum, February 27^th, 2024

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

The Serie A clubs Inter Milan and AC Milan are in talks over a possible renovation of their residence – the San Siro Stadium in Milan, Italy – as two of Italian football giants’ eye a move away from the iconic stadium, the City of Milan said recently.

‘BARRON’S’ stated that the City of Milan, Italy’s economic capital, informed that Mayor Giuseppe Sala met with the AC Milan President Paolo Scaroni and Alessandro Antonello, Inter’s corporate head honcho, “to discuss the feasibility of renovating the San Siro”.

The Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in 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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The Associazione Calcio Milan, commonly referred to as AC Milan or simply Milan, is an Italian professional football club based in Milan, Lombardy (Italy). Founded in 1899, the club competes in the Serie A, the top tier of Italian football, and has spent its entire history there with the exception of the 1980-1981 and 1982-1983 seasons.

The football stadium in the San Siro district of Milan, Italy, is commonly known by the Internazionale fans as the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza and the AC Milan fans as the San Siro. It has a seating capacity of 80,018, making it one of the largest stadiums in Europe, and the largest in Italy.

‘BARRON’S’ further stated that the Italian construction group WeBuild will, added the City, produce within three months a feasibility study into the works needed.

Rozzano (Italy)-based Webuild SpA is an Italian industrial group specializing in construction and civil engineering. The company was formally founded in 2014 as the result of a merger of Salini into Impregilo. Webuild is the largest Italian engineering and general contractor group and a global player in the construction sector.

Meanwhile, the two teams will produce guidelines for “a possible renovation that results in a more modern and efficient stadium”.

Both Inter and AC Milan have insisted that the San Siro, which is owned by the City of Milan, become the property of the two clubs.

The City also said that the clubs want protection from financial losses and insist that any works fit in with the schedule of the matches and other events, while the area surrounding the stadium could also be redeveloped.

Sala has repeatedly expressed his worry about what will happen to the San Siro, nicknamed ‘football’s La Scala’ if Inter and AC Milan do build new stadiums on other sites.

Both the clubs, who between them have been crowned European champions 10 times, have begun the process of moving outside Milan after an initial project to knock down the San Siro and build a new stadium on the same land collapsed last year.

Opposition to that project, which also included a host of new construction near the proposed new ground, from the local and national politicians extended the already long bureaucratic procedures needed for approval.

Earlier this month, the AC Milan bought land in suburb San Donato Milanese as part of a plan to move away from the San Siro and outside the City of Milan’s official boundaries.

The Inter meanwhile are pushing for a new stadium in the town of Rozzano, just South of Milan, after having also sounded out the possibility of building on the former industrial land in the populous Northern suburb Sesto San Giovanni in Milan, Italy.

Recently, Antonello said that Inter’s priority was to move to Rozzano while Scaroni said he was skeptical of the possibility of carrying out the renovation works without having to move.

Both the Milan clubs regularly attract crowds of over 70,000 and there is no stadium other than the San Siro in Northern Italy with a similar capacity.

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