AC Milan’s pursuit of a new stadium has generated quite a lot of back and forth in the media, and the latest clash is between Giuseppe Sala and Barbara Berlusconi.
Berlusconi was always in favour of building a new stadium, as she and the club unveiled plans to build a 48,000-capacity home in time for the 2018-19 campaign all the way back in July 2015, but it never materialised.
It has been made clear over the past few weeks and months that Milan intend to build their new home in San Donato, something their Mayor confirmed, but as a response the City Council launched their own project.
The €300m project for the renovation of San Siro was presented one week ago, in what is a bid to keep both AC Milan and Inter at the iconic stadium for a while longer yet.
Calciomercato.com has relayed the media bickering between Barbara Berlusconi – the daughter of Silvio and fformer vice-president of Milan – and the city Mayor Beppe Sala.
“The proposal to redevelop San Siro is another way of doing nothing. The project seems generic and far-fetched to me. From the in-depth studies that we at Milan had done, it costs less to do a new one,” she said.
“The estimate for the works at 300 million euros is too low and not credible. Real Madrid will spend much more than a billion euros to renovate the Bernabeu, with costs almost double compared to forecasts.”
Sala’s response: “But what does Barbara Berlusconi know? Everyone can have their say, but what does she know? Let’s let those who know how to work work.
“Not even I am able to make an assessment, but if now everyone has their say… come on!
“Next week there could be a meeting with the two clubs, with whom we have already spoken on the phone. For them it is essential to be able to do the work without leaving San Siro, this is the real issue.
“Until this point is clarified, I do not want to be either an optimist or a pessimist. If it became clear that the work could be done, at that point I would become optimistic. I don’t think the teams are negative about the idea of staying at the Meazza.”
To my mind she knows far more than you Sala. She was front and centre on our stadium project years ago when the San Siro may have been in even better condition than it it now and the conclusions were that it would be more feasible to build a new stadium even back then. In depth studies were done back then which supported the decision to leave. Now kindly stand aside and let us proceed with our new arena free of your interference.
This Sala guy is incredible. What does HE know about running a football club?
He know about ruining.
Exactly!!! Even Barbara knows 1000x more than that senile Sala.
But why Sala is kinda pushing Milan and Inter stay together in this stadium?
It is 100% obvious that Milan can generate more revenue from new Stadium…
But why he is against it?
Because San Siro is owned by Milan municipality and Sala is the mayor of Milan, both Milan and Inter pays money, to Milan municipality, to rent San Siro. If they have their own stadiums, then Sala can’t fill his pockets. That’s why he is adamant to keep Milan and Inter in San Siro.
Sala is a criminal and a perfect example of why politics in Italy defy logic. Milan city could’ve resolved this issue years ago and been able to count on the tax revenue from two stadiums now after years of extortion they get nothing.
He shouldn’t interfere clubs internal strategy in the first place.
The only thing he can put his nose is deciding to sell area from San Donato because San Donato area is cannot be given away or sold as it is public property.
Can anyone explain from Legal perspective?
I don’t think he has any say in the affairs of San Donato Milanese.
Once we own the land, which we all but do, he has no power to stop us building on it. There are many other Italian political hurdles still to clear though,
The area for the new stadium is private area and AC Milan had bought it last year.
Milan already bought private land? Aaaaand Sala is interfering to build a new Stadium? I mean… How the f** law works in Italy?
He cannot stop Milan if Milan want to continue in San Donato. That is why he attempt to lure Milan back with more empty promises.
I think Sala is just making it look like he’s trying to get the teams to stay, so that when re-election comes around, he can say “hey, I tried”
An absolute clown if you ask me.
PLEASE FIX THE “posting comments too quickly” PROBLEM
The problem with people like Sala is that they don’t think about the future. They only care about their current political ratings.
A new stadium would generate more income for the city. When ACM starts making more money the city will also get its piece from fans, tourists, taxes etc.
Barbara Berlusconi know more than Beppe Sala about football club finance.
But I am talking about legal sides.
In general, there are state prosecutors who keep checking government officials. When any government official like Sala tries to do something that is out of his power. It automatically means government officials used his job power to get something done.
Every country’s constitution prevents that from happening.
So… why that state prosecutors are not taking legal actions against Sala?
Forget about football, imagine you rent a restaurant in neighborhood and you pay rent to someone.
Then you decided not to rent that place and decided to buy a new restaurant or land to build a restaurant in a different part of city.
Suddenly that ‘someone’ is trying to keep you rent his place and preventing you from buying another restaurant or land!
What do you do? You go to Police and file a complaint to court!
I think Milan board have every right to do so against Sala, am right or idiot?
“Every country’s constitution prevents that from happening.”
Apparently not.
@Yalnets24, so which country gives government officials unlimited power to do whatever they want to do?
What about Italian constitution? What it says?
I am not trying to question you but I genuinely want to know.
Absolute monarchy still exist in some part of Africa and Middle East.
I don’t think Italian constutitution prevent Sala from giving proposal to Milan but if the he attempt to misuse his power to block development in San Donato, Milan can sue him. So far he don’t. He can’t interfere with San Donato, he can only whining.
« But what does Barbara Berlusconi know? Everyone can have their say, but what does she know? Let’s let those who know how to work work. »
Replace Barbara Berlusconi by most fans on this comment section. Wtf are you talking about legal actions and police, Sala isn’t forcing anybody, he’s trying his best to make Milan electors believe he’s doing everything to keep the clubs at San Siro. He’s no idiot, he knows that Jerry the stadium builder has no interest in staying in a shared stadium because the resale value of the club would be lower. Sala and Jerry are driven by their own interest as every politician and businessman. Now it remains to be seen if a 1B€ stadium (maybe more considering that most construction works exceed projected costs) will be a good thing for Milan or if that debt will be a massive burden.
It wasn’t a burden to Juventus. Even Atalanta, Sassuolo and Udinese have been able to purchase and renovate their stadiums.
The Juventus stadium has been built more than a decade ago for around 110M with only half in loan.