Napoli at odds over the Maradona: club considers new stadium for Euro 2032 | OneFootball

The rift between SSC Napoli and the City Council over the future of the Diego Armando Maradona stadium has become clear-cut.

Farewell to Maradona, will there be a Coca Cola stadium?

In an official statement, Aurelio De Laurentiis' club declared the facility "unsuitable" to host Euro 2032 matches, announcing its intention to invest in the construction of a new, privately-owned stadium, with the ambition of making it a modern infrastructure that meets UEFA standards.

Napoli, rift over Maradona: the club considers a new stadium for Euro 2032

The Napoli statement: «Maradona is not suitable for the European Championship»

The note released by SSC Napoli clarifies the contents of the recent interlocutory meeting with UEFA, FIGC, and the City of Naples, which the club attended through its legal representative, lawyer Arturo Testa.

Here are the main points:

UEFA reiterated the strict parameters for the Euro 2032 candidacy, emphasizing the need for concrete cooperation between clubs and local institutions.

Napoli expressed a negative assessment of the Maradona stadium's suitability, deeming it inadequate both structurally and economically.

The adaptation projects proposed by the City Council, according to the club, do not meet the criteria for financial sustainability and would not allow alignment with the required European standards.

A passage in the statement also denies some recent journalistic reconstructions: «No OK was given by UEFA and FIGC to the City Council's project, as written by some media outlets».

Towards a new stadium: the club's project and vision

Faced with the impossibility of investing in the current facility, Napoli opens the way to a new infrastructural chapter: a privately-owned stadium, built from scratch, without costs to the community, and inserted in an urban regeneration perspective.

The club has already identified an urban area defined as "degraded", where the future facility will arise. The declared goal is twofold:

To provide Naples with a modern stadium, up to the challenges of future sports and economic competitions.

To contribute concretely to the urban redevelopment of a city area, focusing on private investments and without burdening public funds.

In this perspective, the facility would be born with criteria of sustainability, multifunctionality, and accessibility, thus concretely candidating itself to host Euro 2032 matches.

The clash with the City Council

The SSC Napoli statement also seems to be an indirect response to recent statements by City Council representatives – including Councilor Nino Simeone, who defined the area chosen by the club as "not degraded" and reiterated the administration's intention to focus on restyling the Maradona.

The impression is that the visions between the parties are now irreconcilable: on one hand, the City Council wants to defend a symbolic and public facility; on the other, Napoli aims for an autonomous, efficient, private, and future-oriented infrastructure.

What happens now?

With the imminent transfer of Osimhen, which will bring fresh resources to the club, and the prospect of an ambitious stadium project, De Laurentiis looks to the future.

The dream of a privately-owned facility, already cultivated in the past without success, today takes shape in a favorable scenario, also in light of the incentives related to the Special Economic Zone (ZES) and the need to renew the Italian sports facility system in view of Euro 2032.

For now, there are no certain times, but the message is clear: Napoli no longer intends to invest in the Maradona stadium. And it does so with a clear direction, destined to change the face of Neapolitan football.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇮🇹 here.