Roma's project for a property stadium clashes with the political authorities, as rumours emerge of an underlying intrigue.
It is believed that the new administration at Rome's municipality, composed of the anti-establishment party Movimento 5 Stelle, ranged between indifference and opposition to plans for the Stadio della Roma.
Roma's project for a property stadium clashes with the political authorities, as rumours emerge of an underlying intrigue.
It is believed that the new administration at Rome's municipality, composed of the anti-establishment party Movimento 5 Stelle, ranged between indifference and opposition to plans for the Stadio della Roma.
The vice-mayor Daniele Frongia stated that he is in favour of the idea of a stadium, but not that of building an entire new neighbourhood around it, as that was simply real estate speculation.
“What we'll say again is that we want the stadium as long as the law is respected,” said Frongia, as reported by Il Tempo. “And by stadium, the Raggi administration means a football stadium. This is an urbanisation project and it's got very little to do with football and with sports.”
Roma's plans were submitted to the municipality, which now has to approve them for the region before works can begin. The city officials have 90 days to do this, 60 of which have already passed, but nothing appears to have happened yet.
“I never had the stadium dossier on my desk,” Frongia claims. “The delay in the analysis of the stadium project in Tor di Valle is only and exclusively the fault of Roma.”
Frongia claims that the municipality requested further documents from the football club, but these were only delivered late. But the vice-mayor retracted his own statements later, saying: "I never said that it's all Roma's fault, it's clear that since May 30 they haven't received anything. I was talking about the commissioners that were there in 2015 [before the current administration was elected]."
Il Tempo's report then becomes relatively unclear, as they quote the 'proponents of the project' without specifying whether these are Roma officials or architectural / real estate third parties.
“We never received, neither formally nor informally, a request for further documents since we deposited the final project on May 30,” say the newspaper's sources.
Il Tempo also claim to have spoken with officials in the city who say they are ready to approve the plan for the region, and are only waiting to be told what to do.
“I'm the one who's right on this,” replied Frongia. “I have seen the papers and on at least one occasion the subcommissioner asked for some documents, which I have not seen except in a very summary form.
“As for the officials, they are lying. It says a lot about Rome's situation when our own functionaries are disloyal and go and speak to the journalists. It doesn't work this way in Canada.”
As well as the apparent tension between Frongia and other administrators within the Giallorossi and the municipality, there is also significant debate regarding the project's legal status.
It would be in the benefit of the football club for the plan to qualify as a work of public interest, but the Raggi administration is opposed to that, claiming that the city has other priorities. This disagreement must also be resolved quickly, as it risks delaying the project even longer if it isn't sorted by the time the stadium plan is approved for the region.