Milan (AFP)
The legendary San Siro stadium in Milan has taken another step towards its demolition with the decision of the regional commission responsible for the heritage of Lombardy not to oppose it, reports the agency AGI.
"The building called + Giuseppe Meazza stadium + (San Siro) has no cultural interest and is therefore excluded from the protection provisions", estimates in a report the regional commission, which depends on the Italian Ministry of Culture, according to the agency AGI.
This position opens the door a little more to the project of its two resident clubs, AC Milan and Inter, which want to knock down the "cathedral" of San Siro, the stadium's nickname, to build a new 60,000-seater on the same site, located west of the city.
Divided on this enterprise, the municipal council had appealed to the opinion of the regional commission in charge of heritage.
And it judges in its report that the enclosure cannot be subjected to the protection of the cultural goods, the building having undergone a continuous transformation since its construction in 1926 and only a tiny part of the original stadium remaining.
Even if the approval of this organization does not constitute a final green light to the project for a new stadium, it is an additional blow to the emblematic spiral staircases of the Milanese enclosure.
The clubs, which have not won either Serie A since 2011, want to build a new stadium on land adjacent to the current San Siro, while the old would give way to a zone " dedicated to sports, entertainment and shopping. "
The two clubs presented their project last September, at a cost estimated by them at 1.2 billion euros.
The mayor of Milan Guiseppe Sala considers it more judicious to renovate the existing stadium so that it can celebrate its centenary in 2026 with the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics that year.
On the contrary, the renovation of Meazza - composed of three rings built between 1926 and 1990 - would have an insufficient and inferior result in terms of capacity, services and comfort than the construction of a new stadium, consider AC Milan and Inter, former European giants in search of their past luster, ten years to the day Friday after the coronation of nerazzurri in the Champions League, the last of an Italian club in C1.
© 2020 AFP