Naples Mayor Discusses Maradona Stadium Renovation and New Stadium Plans

“I believe the priority and main route is a restructuring intervention on the Maradona stadium. There is a law, the stadium law, which provides a procedural path already defined in terms of agreements between Municipalities and sports companies for the renovation of stadiums. On this, I repeat, there is the utmost availability from both the Municipality and the national Government, and I have spoken at length with Minister Abodi,” said the Mayor of Naples, Gaetano Manfredi, following the statements of the president of Napoli Football, Aurelio De Laurentiis, who announced his intention to build a new stadium in Bagnoli, ready by 2027. Manfredi reported receiving a phone call from De Laurentiis asking for a meeting to illustrate his idea. A meeting which - Manfredi emphasized - must also involve Invitalia, which owns the land of the former Italsider area in Bagnoli. “I cannot talk about lands that are not mine,” the mayor highlighted, “we will evaluate when there is a possibility and we will talk about it.” “The timing of the clean-ups is longer compared to that of De Laurentiis's project. Just yesterday we defined a very detailed timetable together with the ministry and Invitalia - Manfredi explained - between April and May, the funds should be allocated by the Ministry of the Environment, after their reallocation, and from the start of the works, the cleanup times are from three to five years. Moreover, the construction of a stadium would be a complex operation because there is already an urban plan that would need to be modified, already defined land uses, there are general constraints.”