San Siro Set for Demolition After Sale to Milan, Inter OKed

Milan: Milan’s iconic San Siro stadium is set to be demolished after the city council approved a plan to sell the site to Inter and AC Milan for 197 million euros so the Serie A soccer giants can build a new home on it. Both teams had threatened to build stadiums outside the city if the controversial plan was rejected.

According to Ansa News Agency, the project was approved in the early hours of Tuesday, ending years of uncertainty, after a marathon session of the city assembly. The aim is for the 1.2-billion-euro project to be finished in time for the new stadium to host games at Euro 2032, which Italy will host along with Turkey.

A legal bid to halt the controversial revamp of Milan’s iconic San Siro stadium was turned down in July, when the local Regional Administrative Court (TAR) rejected a petition for the city council’s sale of the site to be suspended. The plan has drawn much criticism, including from British director Ken Loach.

“I share your horror at the prospect of losing the San Siro stadium,”
wrote the 89-year-old filmmaker earlier this year in a letter to Lucia Tozzi, an Italian town-planning expert and journalist who is also unhappy about the project. “It is hard to believe that the San Siro stadium is in danger. It is one of the greatest and most historic football stadiums in the world, respected by fans around the world. The thought that it will be destroyed is shocking and it must not be allowed to happen.”