UEFA President questions the football infrastructure in Italy: “Very bad”

UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin strongly criticized the infrastructure in Italy, which will host the 2032 European Championship with Turkey. The manager was in Florence on Wednesday (11) to inaugurate the club’s new training center and said he was impressed, but at the same time criticized the country for lagging behind in this regard compared to the rest of Europe.

Ceferin visited the training center in Coverciano, affiliated with the Italian Football Federation, where the Italian national team trains, and then headed to Viola Park, the new training center for the Fiorentina team, which opened on Wednesday afternoon. “This is probably the most beautiful training center I have ever seen, and I have seen most of them at least once,” Ceferin said in an interview with Sky Sport Italia.

Despite praising Viola Park, Aleksander Ceferin was harsh when talking about Italy’s football infrastructure. The stadium situation in the country remains very difficult, and despite UEFA’s selection of Italy and Turkey as venues for Euro 2032, the manager has warned that much will have to be done to improve the situation.

Italy’s initial idea was to host the 2032 European Championship alone, but it reached an agreement to share it with Turkey, and each of them will have five stadiums for the matches. This was part of a political arrangement whereby Portugal, Spain and Morocco would host the 2030 World Cup, and the United Kingdom and Ireland would receive the 2028 European Cup. As a result, Turkey would have been a candidate to host the 2028 World Cup, but withdrew to host 2032 in partnership with Italy.

The division between Italy and Turkey was done to reduce UEFA’s reliance on Italian stadiums, which are still viewed with a great deal of suspicion because they are old buildings. For this reason, Ceferin hopes that the Italian government and sports entities will seek to improve this situation by 2032.

Ceferin: “The government must start investing in infrastructure”

The opportunity to host Euro 2032 is seen as a great opportunity to renew Italian stadiums. This is the first time Italy has hosted a tournament of this size since the 1990 World Cup.

“The infrastructure in Italy, compared to the level of football and the size of the country, is very bad. Of course I am optimistic, but I think the government should start investing in infrastructure,” Ceferin said. “If your country is very passionate about football and sports in principle, He must make more effort. “Right now, we just hope everything goes well.”

Italy has not yet confirmed which stadiums will be used for Euro 2032, and there is time to make a decision on that. However, at least two of them will need major restructuring to gain UEFA approval.

At Euro 2020, held in 2021, Rome’s Stadio Olimpico hosted the matches. It is not yet known what the situation will be at San Siro in 2032, as the construction of the new stadium has been banned. Both Inter and Milan are still searching for a solution to the issue and are exploring the possibility of building a new stadium close to the city.

Naples is an obvious candidate to host the matches as well, as it has a large stadium. Torino, with Juventus’ Allianz Stadium, is another obvious candidate to feature on the list.