The general director of Florentine goes on the attack Senateexpressing himself extensively on the topic of the stadium Artemio Franchi during a hearing relating to Reform prospects of the Italian footballwhich was also attended by the CEO Bologna Fenucci.
‘Paradoxical situation in Florence on the stadium front’
“I thank you for the opportunity to come here and make me listen. In Florence we are experiencing a paradoxical situation. We have a president who arrived in June 2019 who wanted to build a proprietary stadium, we presented a project but the Superintendence denied the feasibility of the project presented. We followed the Municipality which took us to areas to be reclaimed and restored, we abandoned the solutions because they were not economically and functionally feasible. We went to look for land outside Florence, in Campi Bisenzio, where local politics did not help us find infrastructural solutions that are needed outside the stadium, from roads to motorway exits, from parking to the tramway”.
‘The stadium will lose seats and we don’t know where we will play in 25-26’
“We always fell back on the advice of the Municipality of Florence on the renovation of an athletics stadium only to be told that it could not be touched by the president of the Region, then we ended up knowing the Franchi as destined to become a monument recognized by the Ministry of Culture. The mayor of Florence was very good at obtaining funding to modernize this monument, making it functional and operational, 130 million arrived for the project but 100 million are missing and today they are not there. Work began on June 1st and we find ourselves with a stadium that goes from 34 to 22 thousand spectators, economic damage from 9 to 13 million, we are not sure where we will play in the 2025-2026 season.”
“We were only able to have an agreement for one year because the municipality itself told us that it had no certainties about it, the money has not been found to date. We also sent a letter to stop the work. This is what happens to an entrepreneur Italian American who returns to Italy and makes around 440 million in 5 years Viola Park Fiorentina and management costs, and found itself faced with serious difficulties in being able to create an essential structure for those who play football such as the stadium”.
