Italy is definitely dressed for next winter. After being cut up by the media and supporters the day after its non-qualification for the next 2026 World Cup, Italy has just received a second slap in the face, this time from UEFA, regarding a different issue.
The president of the European body Aleksander Ceferin warned that Italy, co-organizer of Euro 2032 with Turkey, could no longer host the tournament due to the state of its stadiums, “among the worst in Europe”.
“Euro 2032 is scheduled and will take place, that’s a certainty. I hope the infrastructure will be ready. If this is not the case, the tournament will not be played in Italy,” Ceferin said in an interview with Gazzetta dello Sport. As he had already done last May, the boss of European football regretted the state of Italian stadiums.
Eleven candidate cities to host the Euro
“Italian politicians should perhaps ask themselves why Italy’s football infrastructure is among the worst in Europe,” he stressed. Also referring to the poor performance of the Nazionale, eliminated Tuesday for the third consecutive time in the World Cup play-offs, Ceferin estimated that “Italy is one of the most important countries in football and will return to the top”. But, he assured, “the most important problem in Italian football is the relationship between football policies and ‘normal’ policies.”
Italy was initially due to designate in October 2026 the five stadiums which will host Euro 2032 matches. Eleven cities and stadiums have submitted applications: Rome, Florence, Bologna, Verona, Milan, Genoa, Bari, Naples, Turin (Juventus stadium), Cagliari and Palermo.
But among these applications, two are based on stadiums that have yet to be built. In Milan, Inter and AC Milan have launched a project to build a new San Siro. The Rome city council last month gave the green light to the construction of a stadium by AS Roma from 2027 in the Pietralata district, in the north-east of the Italian capital. But these projects can be delayed by a long administrative process, criticized by Serie A clubs and presented as an obstacle to the modernization of an obsolete park of stadiums.
Leave a Reply