There is a problem with the renovation of the Fiorentina and Venezia stadiums

We had already anticipated Fiorentina and Venezia's desire to renovate their respective stadiums next season, also benefiting from PNRR funds for urban and social regeneration. However, after almost a month of discussion, the EU Commission concluded that the two stadiums were not eligible for European funds. The appeal was accepted by the government in the person of Raffaele Fitto, Minister for European Affairs and the PNRR, who announced in a communication distributed to newspapers and agencies that the Florence and Venice stadiums "are not eligible for PNRR funds" and that the Commission "has confirmed the ineligibility of both measures under the Integrated Urban Plans (PUI) of the respective major cities"," i.e. the urban plans that include the regeneration projects to be financed with European funds.

The government's decision was inevitable, because to defy the EU Commission's conclusions would have meant delaying the collection of the third tranche of 19 billion. A delay that Palazzo Chigi could not have afforded at that time, given the many implementation problems related to the PNRR. A predictable end, but no less painful for the two cities and associations. In Florence, everyone was already ready to start building, so much so that a tender was launched for the €55 million renovation of the Franchi stadium. Mayor Dario Nardella described the decision as a "serious and unjust damage to the city', as it will now be difficult to find the funds needed to complete the project elsewhere.

A similar fate befell Venice, which had to shelve the now ten-year-old project of a sports city in Tessera, east of Mestre, which was supposed to solve the age-old problem of sports facilities in the lagoon city. In fact, in addition to a 20,000-seater football stadium to replace the Penzo and also to be used for rugby, the project also envisaged a sports hall for Venice's Reyer basketball team, owned by Mayor Brugnaro. A 300 million euro project, one third of which was to be financed by European funds. Brugnaro has let it be known that he wants to confirm it regardless of the government's decision. Italy's historical difficulties in renovating and modernising sports facilities have now been joined by a new problem.