La Gazzetta dello Sport claim Inter have already chosen a site for their new stadium and are prepared to start the project without Milan. Reports circulated earlier this week that the Nerazzurri were furious with their city rivals after news broke that Milan were ready to start work on a new stadium project of their own, without involving Inter.
La Gazzetta write that after yesterday’s meeting at the City Hall between Inter, AC Milan and Milan mayor Beppe Sala, its become clear that AC Milan are willing to give up on the ‘Cathedral project’. The Rossoneri are abandoning the San Siro area and choosing La Maura, but Inter have, in turn, found an area for an independent stadium.
The proposed site is in the south-west of the metropolitan area, in Assago, where Inter plan to build an ‘all-Nerazzurri stadium’. The site has reportedly been a long-standing ‘Plan B’, but recent events mean it is now becoming their Plan A, and it’s the only truly viable one. Preliminary documents have already been signed with the owners of a large private area not far from the Forum. The details can now be worked out, precisely because ‘The Cathedral’ project which was planned with AC Milan is ‘fading into the horizon’.
The ‘Rossonerazzurra’ idea has not yet completely disappeared as on the surface, it would still be the option most favoured by Inter given the time, money and hopes spent. Inter director Alessandro Antonello had revealed that the Nerazzurri’s alternative plan was not strictly within the city boundaries, but in the wider metropolitan area. In the so-called ‘greater Milan’: an area inhabited by some three million people that spills over into the hinterland, but provided with public transport.
Gazzetta report that the meeting between the mayor, Milan president Paolo Scaroni and the new Rossoneri CEO Giorgio Furlani, the mood was cordial, apart from a few scattered jabs. When the Milan delegates referred to the economic difficulties of the Zhang family, Antonello was firm in defending the position of Suning, who had put commitment and resources into the ‘Cathedral’, before Milan broke the pact. The plan to move to Assago was conceived precisely as a precautionary measure in the event that the joint project for the New San Siro was stalled.
Before Christmas, the municipality had asked the clubs for further changes to give the OK to the ‘Cathedral’. From the public green that was supposed to make up 50 per cent of the entire area to the €40 million charged to the clubs for the redevelopment of the district, passing through to the increase of the seats to 70 thousand and the block on price increases. Everything was about to be put down on paper, but Milan’s changed of heart has changed things for the moment.
