There has been another twist in the stadium saga as the granddaughter of Eni’s founder has asked AC Milan president Paolo Scaroni to not go ahead with building a new stadium in San Donato.
This morning’s edition of La Repubblica (via PianetaMilan) relays the words of Rosalba Mattei, the granddaughter of Eni’s founder Enrico Mattei, who aims to stand against the construction of the new Milan facility in the San Francesco area.
Interviewed by the paper in the Milanese edition, Rosalba Mattei confirmed that she had asked Scaroni not to build Milan’s new stadium in San Donato and she gave a rather sentimental reason for the plea.
“My uncle had no children and at the weekend I went with him to the Abbey of Chiaravalle. When I came to San Donato [Eni’s headquarters] he took me to mass there and told me about Saint Bernard of Chiaravalle,” she said.
“I think it’s a thing to be protected. The abbey is a place where people go to pray, where the monks have an agricultural company. I am nobody to say that a stadium in San Donato cannot be built, but many have called me to ask me to intervene.”
The Abbey of Santa Maria di Rovegnano – to give it its full name – is a Cistercian monastic complex which sits around half a kilometre from where Milan intend to build their new complex.The abbey was founded on 22 January 1135.
According to La Repubblica, Rosalba Mattei’s intervention also involved the archbishop of Milan – Mario Delpini – who is taking action to protect the interests of the Abbey and its monks.
As a reminder of why this might be listened to by Scaroni, he was appointed CEO of ENI in 2005, who are an Italian multinational energy company. During his tenure, ENI’s net worth increased from €39bn to €61bn before he left his role in 2014, as per Wiki.
Mayor Sala is getting all his cohorts involved now.
Politicians and Billionaires make interesting bed fellows.
If a bunch of monks is ruining the stadium plans i’ll suggest us to sell the land to church of satan then lets see how quickly the monks will sway in their views 😛
Kidding aside this is ridiculous that some people expects a football club investing huge amounts to the community to consider a monastaries feelings in 2024 especially when soundproofing has come a long way over the years and that the the planned stadium will be placed in between two highways and a third one even closer to the monastary.
Good thing there are no churches and people praying in San Siro, Milano
So if one person writes a heartbreaking story and asks (INSERT ANY COMPANY OR CLUB NAME HERE) not to build (INSERT ANY BUILDING HERE) somewhere the project will be abandoned? Sure. Of course. Obviously the project will be cancelled. Because this is the world we’re living in. Right?
The abbey is outside the development area.
Sala doing all out to stop ACM build new stadium. Now management must also dealing with few people protest
It’s amazing how Italians consider everything sacred except a club that has brought a lot of attention, honor and history to Milan and Italy. Can’t build what we need to build at San Siro. Can’t build in San Donato. Can’t build anywhere. Let’s just keep the clubs in their toilet stadiums and let Serie A die.