The council of the mayor of Milan Beppe Sala has decided in recent days to confirm the statement of public interest on the proposal relating to the Milan Stadium presented by the Milan and Inter companies, but “the match of San Siro it had to be played in a completely different way, with more attention to citizens and the environment”. This was stated by Luigi Corbani, a long-time politician in Milan, respected and appreciated as a defender of citizens' rights and of the res publica, reading the facts in a broader key that embraces the entire community and citizens' rights.
“This story at San Siro makes me angry: for how it was proposed, for the progress of events, for the imposition of decisions, for the rights of trampled citizens, for the delivery of public goods into private and little-known hands, for the uselessness of the project, for the further consumption of the land. We must unite and make people hear that there is a different voice”, says Corbani, who was at Palazzo Marino from 1985 to 1990 as deputy mayor and councilor for culture, before then joining the Lombardy Regional Council, in the Presidential Office of the Region and then become councilor for culture of Lombardy, always at Pd altitude.
The hypothesis forwarded by the owners of the two city teams is to build a new stadium above a green area of more than 5 hectares, to which they would be added skyscrapers and shopping malls, while the Meazza would be demolished. “It's a bad thing – says Corbani – Starting from the fact that they pass on the message that with the new stadium project money will pour into the poorest areas of Piazza Selinunte, and it's not true! They are two separate things. It makes me angry that they make fun of citizens."
According to the project, further 240 thousand square meters of public land would be placed in the hands of private investors. “We are faced with a situation where the public serves the private sector – observes Corbani – Do the teams need to make money? So they throw the jacket at Sala and he decides with his junta (without even going back to the City Council) to satisfy them, making public areas available to them, including 5 hectares of greenery, and letting them build a new stadium in addition to all the rest that will be needed, again by the teams, to finance the stadium. All of this is absurd. They want to build office skyscrapers, as if there weren't enough voids and shopping malls in Milan already, as if we didn't all see that they belong to a modus vivendi of years ago, so much so that in more advanced countries malls are closing".
Often representatives of the two teams have described this project as a necessity to revive clubs. “The only real thing is that the teams their accounts are in the red. Yes – continues Corbani – And they say in a loud voice that with the new stadium everything will be different. First of all we have already seen what happened to Arsenal and Juventus: they have a new stadium and still have their accounts in the red. Or the other way around: we've seen how Inter won the Scudetto, even without a new stadium. And in any case: you cannot restore the accounts of football clubs with public money".
Clouds also stretch over the horizon regarding the future of this project. "I also have a great fear - continues the former councilor - that the investment funds, owners of the two teams, will pocket the building rights from Sala, sell everything and run away. And who will buy? What will they build? Who tells me you don't come a nice variant (widespread practice in Milan: last February Sala approved the fifth variant for Citylife for example) and that what now seems, won't be? For example, who tells me that they don't build the new one and then they don't want to tear down the Meazza anymore? It would be even worse to have two stadiums."
Still, there would be an alternative. After it was demonstrated that the Meazza stadium is in excellent health, a feasibility plan was filed with the Municipality which envisages the complete restructuring of the current Meazza according to the project of the engineers Riccardo Aceti and Nicola Magistretti.
“Let's even assume that we want a modern stadium, God forbid – adds Corbani who followed the political and technical events relating to the expansion of the Meazza stadium for the 90 World Cup from within the institutions – But then let the current stadium be restructured. It has all the rights and all the qualities: it has received all the certificates of static suitability, it hosted the UEFA Nations League final a month ago. San Siro is still considered one of the most beautiful stadiums in the world and remains a historical symbol of Milan. Demolishing it would be absurd. I would have expected greater protection of contemporary architecture from a left-wing coalition. We have all seen the Aceti/Magistretti project which includes the complete renovation of all services, spaces, stairs, seats and so on. In addition to the plus of a panoramic gallery unique in the world”. Finally, an observation on the way to proceed: "If a Municipality wants to carry out an operation on public land, it must organize an international tender, which includes both the new stadium option and the restructuring option, with costs, times, revenues : all in the light of the sun and in full honesty towards the citizens - concludes Corbani - Instead this project is always sbeen kept under wraps, even from city councilors."
