Italy was awarded co-hosting duties for Euro 2032 along with Turkey just over 16 months ago, and to date little movement has been had in terms of building new stadia for the tournament.

Italy hasn’t hosted a tournament since the days of ‘Notti Magiche’, Toto Schillaci and an emerging Roberto Baggio in the summer of 1990.

A lot of water has passed under the proverbial bridge since then and many of Italy’s grounds lie in a state of serious disrepair. Many need a complete overhaul. The average age of stadiums in Italy sits at 68 years, with many of them built in the Benito Mussolini era.

The pressure is now on the state to unblock the byzantine bureaucracy that’s blighted many a project in Italy. The country needs to provide five stadiums and cities to host games by October 2026.

Failure to do so would result in Italy getting stripped of hosting duty, an embarrassment the country as a footballing powerhouse may not recover from.

Here, Destination Calcio looks at how some of those projects are progressing, a little over seven years out from the tournament.

Milan

Where to even begin with this saga? Even by Italian standards, the issue of what to do with San Siro has been worthy of a play. 

In the summer of 2019, both occupants – Inter and AC Milan – declared their intention to build a new stadium together, beside the current one, and to knock down the country’s most iconic arena.

Cue outrage from local politicians and football fans around the world. The project was stuck in a political quagmire for years, with the pandemic not helping matters.

Giuseppe Sala, the current mayor of Milan, didn’t want to be known as the man that agreed to tear down a football cathedral, and so stalled the project as best he could. 

Both sides then sought to build their own stadiums on the fringes of Milan — Inter in Rozzano and Milan in San Donato — but these plans also hit the buffers.

A change of ownership for both teams in the intervening period also didn’t help matters. Now the plan has reverted back to the original; building a new San Siro.

Yet demolishing the stadium isn’t allowed due to the stadium now passing into national law as a historic monument, and thus the only option is to carry out serious renovations. 

The Milan city council has discussed selling the stadium, and the land adjacent, to both clubs, with the value around €200m. 

The sale could happen in the summer, and thus would allow the clubs to keep all match day revenue and save money on renting it from the council each season — to the tune of some €18m, split between both teams.

Rome

Roma are making baby steps in their attempts to finally leave the Stadio Olimpico. 

After years stuck in development hell under the previous ownership and the ‘Stadio della Roma’ project in the Tor di Valle area of the city, the Friedkin Group have identified Pietralata, a pocket of land in the northeast region in the capital, as their location for a new stadium.

The American group are seeking merely a stadium, as opposed to the entertainment centre wanted by predecessor James Pallotta, and thus gaining favourable traction with the Roman city council. 

This being Rome, of course, archaeological excavations are underway and should be finished within the next month. Then the definitive project will be presented in April or May.

The ownership will pay for the stadium entirely, to the tune of a colossal €1.1bn. The club aim to be playing in the new stadium by 2028. As ever, this timeline is likely to shift.

Lazio club president Claudio Lotito, meanwhile, is attempting to move the Biancocelesti into the vacant and ever-decaying Stadio Flaminio. The stadium has laid dormant since 2011, when it was last used for Italy’s Six Nations games. 

Located in the north of the city and not a million miles away from the Stadio Olimpico, the 30,000-seater capacity is more in keeping with Lazio’s level of support. Lotito presented his project to the Rome’s Capitoline Hill just before Christmas.

Plans are to lift the stadium to a capacity of 50,000 and renovate the surrounding area. However, as is the case with Roma, a series of checks will be undertaken first, including archaeological excavations, financing and the issue of a lack of car parks. 

Florence

If you’ve watched any of Serie A this season, you’ll see that the Stadio Artemio Franchi is already undergoing work, with the Curva Ferrovia already demolished and bulldozers visible during broadcasts. It’s an eyesore, but at least construction work is actually happening. 

The renovation of the Franchi has been surrounded in controversy, considering most of it was due to be financed by the EU and money handed to Italy as part of the country’s post-pandemic recovery fund.

Yet the money provided by the EU was withheld for the project by the European Commission. The end result was €55m of the total €95m set aside for the project now missing.

Fiorentina owner Rocco Commisso has come forward saying he’s willing to pick up the tab for the rest, granted the city give Fiorentina a 50-year concession on the building work and the ground itself, meaning the club will gain all financial revenue from the stadium.

Talks are ongoing between the club and the city, with the first phase of the renovation due to be complete by 2026. 

Florence is pushing to be considered as the fourth city to lay on games for Euro 2032, with Turin, Milan and Rome all-but guaranteed host status at this stage. 

Naples

Napoli owner Aurelio De Laurentiis has, in recent times, discussed either buying or moving away from the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona. 

Naples is another city vying to be given hosting duties for Euro 2032, but the Maradona in its current shape isn’t fit for purpose.

The arena was renovated, ever so slightly, to host the 2019 Summer World University Games. New seats, athletics track and two large screens were installed.

Yet it’s clear that Napoli warrant a more-modern stadium. De Laurentiis had announced plans a year ago to move to the Bagnoli area of the city. This has since been scrapped.

The mayor of Naples, Gaetano Manfredi, has opened discussions with De Laurentiis about Napoli staying at the Maradona, while also renovating the stadium ahead of Euro 2032.

De Laurentiis, for his part, is not enthused about investing in the stadium, but also knows he’ll find it extremely difficult to build a new one from scratch in other areas of the city. 

Manfredi has proposed reopening the third tier of the stadium while renovation work is carried out, ensuring Napoli don’t lose too much match day revenue due to diminished attendances.

Yet it remains to be seen if this proposal would appease De Laurentiis. The owner of Napoli would likely want concessions on the stadium, similar to Commisso at Fiorentina, should he have to foot the renovation bill.

Other projects

Bologna’s attempt to renovate the Stadio Renato Dall‘Ara looked at one point to be firmly on track, but obstacles have sprung up in the past few years that have slowed down progress.

Bologna had contracted WeBuild to carry out the work, a construction company that specialises in large-scale building projects.

The plan was for Bologna to move out of the Dall‘Ara temporarily and into a purpose-built stadium for several years while the 98-year-old stadium underwent renovations.

Yet the cost of the project has ballooned to around €200m, according to Calcio e Finanza, and the issue now is who pays for the missing €50m, with Bologna set to invest €110m and the city €40m.

Moreover, where to build the temporary stadium has also been an issue, with space at a premium within the city. 

Genoa is also another city thought to be in the running for Euro 2032 duty. Both Sampdoria and Genoa had been in an agreement to buy the Stadio Luigi Ferraris towards the end of 2024, but discussions collapsed as relations between the two clubs became frosty.

However in January this year, an agreement was found between the two clubs and the city to modernise one of Italy’s most-loved stadiums.

Cds Holding, a property developer, will handle the renovation process and will work based on a project drawn up by Milan-based architect Stefano Boeri, with the intention of improving the entire Marassi neighbourhood.

The agreement put in place gives the two clubs two options: either they go 50-50 in buying the stadium, or a new multi-year concession is found with the city. The plan is to have the stadium ready for 2029 ahead of Euro 2032.

Last summer, Empoli presented €45m plans to modernise the Stadio Carlo Castellani.

Generally viewed as one of the worst designed stadiums in the country, the Tuscan club’s project would upgrade the facility and increase the capacity slightly to 18,000 seats, while also installing restaurants, bars and office space.

The city council has since asked the club to make amends to the proposal, to include a park and parking space. No date has been pencilled in, but with full support of the Empoli council, there should be little issues on a political level.

In Sardinia, Cagliari have been attempting to build a new stadium for years. Plans had been passed by the city council as far back as 2019 but, as ever in the peninsula, political issues, in addition to the pandemic, hampered progress.

As in the case of other projects, the costs involved in building the structures has ballooned. Initially projected at €120m, it’s believed the new stadium will cost significantly more.

In December, a new agreement was found between the club and the council, green lighting the project once more. The region of Sardinia will provide €50m in financing, and the municipality will handle the demolition of the old Stadio Sant’Elia, renovated last for Italia ’90, to the tune of €10m.

A private tender will be issued for the construction of the new stadium, with the winning bid responsible for all of the costs involved.

The old stadium, which hasn’t been used since 2017 and lying in a state of total abandonment, is set to be demolished early this year, with a potential date for the new Sant’Elia pencilled in for 2028.

The new arena is set to have 25,000 seats, extendable to 30,000 so that Sardinia could host Euro 2032 matches.

Como, meanwhile, are currently playing their first Serie A season since 2003 and have ambitions of redesigning the Stadio Giuseppe Sinigaglia.

Populous, the architect firm who are also working with Roma, announced at the beginning of this year they’d be presenting plans for a refurbished Sinigaglia next year, with potential renovation stages happening in 2027 and 2028.

Tuscan side Arezzo have also announced €28m plans to renovate the Stadio Citta di Arezzo.

Currently languishing in Serie C, Arezzo aim to be the first club to make use of the Stadium Law Act of 2021, designed to make it easier for clubs to bypass the bureaucratic obstacles that’s made stadium building in Italy a nightmare.

Once the paperwork is signed off, plans are afoot to redevelop the stadium starting in 2026, with a completion date of 2030.