The anti-establishment 5-Star
Movement said Thursday "better solutions" would have to be found
for AS Roma's new stadium after leader Beppe Grillo said it
could not be built in its current planned site.
"The stadium will be built, it's just a question of finding
the best solutions to do it," said M5S MP Carlo Sibilia after
meeting Grillo in Rome.
He said "technical meetings are ongoing" on the project and
there was no risk of Rome city council having to pay one billion
euros in damages to Roma.
Grillo said Wednesday the current site in the southern Tor di
Valle area was unsuitable for a range of reasons, prompting Roma
President James Pallotta to say abandoning the current project
would be a "catastrophe".
Grillo has said Rome Mayor Virginia Raggi will unveil a
proposal on the project at a meeting with Roma officials and
constructors Friday.
MP Lorenza Bonaccorsi of the centre-left Democratic Party
(PD), which leads the national government and heads the
opposition on Rome city council, criticised Grillo for "not
allowing Raggi even the possibility of pretending to herself be
the mayor".
The PD caucus in the city council said: "a confused state
reigns in the Campidoglio (Capitol), an indeterminacy that
verges on exploiting the mentally unfit, holding the capital to
hostage".
The caucus said Raggi had effectively been "stripped of her
powers".
M5S bigwig Luigi Di Maio, the Lower House Deputy Speaker,
denied this, saying that "the decision will be taken by the
councillors, the experts and the mayor".
He said Grillo was not "dictating" anything to Raggi on the
subject.
UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin said on a visit to Rome
Thursday that if a new Roma stadium is not built "it will be a
disaster not only for Roma but also for Italian soccer."
He said he only knew about the project from the media and "I
don't have a complete idea, I don't know if it's the right
place, whose responsibility it is".
Ceferin was addressing a press conference after an official
visit to the Italian soccer federation.
Grillo said Wednesday that Raggi's failure so far to approve
AS Roma's project to build a new stadium in the capital was due
to prudence.
"Raggi is acting in a precautionary way," Grillo said of the
much-delayed project during a visit to Rome.
Rome's heritage superintendency said at the weekend a
horseracing course at the planned construction site could not be
demolished because of its historic architectural value.
M5S MP Alfonso Bonafede said Wednesday that a city resolution
on the stadium project adopted by a previous administration may
be annulled.
A meeting between Raggi and advocates of the project,
including constructor Luca Parnasi and Roma General Manager
Mauro Baldissoni, has been postponed until Friday.
Roma are talking to Raggi's administration to see if a
slightly revised and downsized version of their original project
can go ahead and give the club its long-desired private stadium.
At present they share the publicly owned Olimpico stadium
with crosscity rivals Lazio.
Grillo also said it was "not possible that a decision on a
million-cubic-metre stadium should be made by the regional
government," in a blog post calling for many powers to be
returned to the city of Rome.
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