What’s behind De Laurentiis’s new jab at the mayor of Naples
The statements of the president of Napoli Aurelio De Laurentiis, the response of the mayor Manfredi, the previous events between the two and the situation of the blue club.
There were a few minutes left until the kick-off of Real Madrid-Napoli and the Italian owner Aurelio De Laurentiis, yesterday, on the microphones of Prime Video (which broadcast the match exclusively) launched a few digs at the number one of the Campania city, Gaetano Manfredi, rare example of a successful wide field left experiment. On the table, the question of the stadium of the Italian champion team, the former San Paolo which after the death of Pibe de Oro Diego Armando Maradona took its name (and glorious destiny). In fact, two and a half years after the disappearance of Diez, the title missing for 33 years arrived, the first without Diego, who had brought two to the Gulf.
WHAT DE LAURENTIIS SAID YESTERDAY ABOUT THE NAPLES STADIUM
“Stadia are in first place, they must become places that can be used twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, like the Bernabeu,” De Laurentiis told Prime. And then: “If the Juventus player Gaetano (Manfredi, ed.), first Citizen of Naples, comes out of the ties that bind him to the City Council and manages to sell me the stadium, I promise to make it the most beautiful in Italy in a year. If, however, the City Councilors hate Naples, then I tell them that we have Vanvitelli's Royal Palace of Caserta and Pompeii: either in Caserta or in Pompeii, because they are strongly linked to Naples. Naples and Campania are one. The President of the Region (Vincenzo De Luca, ed.) is on my side and is the only one who has helped the stadium get set up."
THE STADIUM QUESTION
At the end of May, the mayor had told the patron and cinema man that to obtain the De Laurentiis concession "present a restructuring project with a multi-year investment plan that justifies the concession and we will evaluate". “They have to give it to us for 99 years, otherwise I'll give it up and go build it in Caserta,” AdL had said the day before these declarations to Fabio Fazio's Che Tempo Che Fa. "Napoli has paid all the old fees [three million in arrears, according to Fanpage sources], the situation has therefore been completely remedied", added the mayor, however excluding the sale.
THE RESPONSE OF THE MAYOR OF NAPLES
Responding to AdL, Gaetano Manfredi said: “We are very pleased that the company wants to invest in the stadium if it presents a concrete project with real investments. There are 2 fundamental conditions: that the facility meets the needs necessary to host international sporting events, such as the European Championships. And that the capacity is such that it can allow a high number of Neapolitans to go to the stadium." And again: “If Napoli makes a large investment in the stadium we will discuss it with the citizens but in fact a concrete proposal has not yet arrived. Selling the stadium is currently impossible because it is part of the available assets. The best solution is to give it in concession for 50 years or 99 but with the current regulations it is very difficult to go down this path".
IS MANFREDI A JUVENTIAN OR A NAPLES TIFA?
During the clashes last March with Eintracht Frankfurt fans, Manfredi expressed disappointment at the damage caused to Naples, speaking of a "shattered city". And De Laurentiis responded with a tone: "You're exaggerating… 20 thousand euros in damages for the buses, in short, we'll give it to you…".
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More recently, however, the mayor also expressed his opinion on the sporting events of the Neapolitan club, commenting on Rudi Garcia's less than happy journey on the Azzurri bench which has already ended. While, returning to the stadium, he had launched the idea of wanting to nominate Maradona for Euro2032 as long as he had to proceed with works and investments. In fact, the European Championships which will be held in nine years will be hosted by Italy together with Turkey and for which nine other cities in addition to Naples have applied (Bari, Bologna, Cagliari, Florence, Genoa, Milan, Rome, Turin and Verona) from which the five locations for the matches in Italy will be chosen.
But also returning to the issue of the "Juventus Manfredi", also mentioned yesterday by De Laurentiis: hadn't the mayor of Naples changed his mind? We told it in this newspaper . On the occasion of the scudetto certified by Udine's victory last May, the mayor told Repubblica : "I was like that when I was young", referring to his black and white faith. “Now Naples, and Naples, come first. And I gave it my all, not just me but the Municipality, so that the city was worthy of a splendid team." But there were several moments in which Manfredi said he was a Juventus player.
As Barbin wrote in Policy , “on many past and recent occasions, Manfredi had always put his love for Naples and his true Juventus faith on two different levels. At Corriere della Sera, speaking with Tommaso Labate in November 2021 after his election, he said that "Juventus-Napoli and Napoli-Juventus I never watch them, not even on television". And again: “I am very happy to have become mayor with Naples first in the rankings”. In June two years ago he instead spoke like this: “I haven't been to the stadium for 30 years but as a kid I supported Juventus. Everyone knows this because I always tell the truth, I also say things that don't suit me because people don't make fun of themselves. But I'm a big Napoli fan." “I'll start by saying that I have always been a moderate fan. Living in Nola, a city just outside Naples, I supported that team that had the black and white colors, hence a transfer of sympathy. But nothing more,” he told Fatto Quotidiano in March. Finally , three days ago, Manfredi added yet another element to Sportitalia: "As a child I was a Juventus fan but I didn't follow football much". “I am the Mayor of the Neapolitans and never before have I been a Napoli fan and close to the team. I have the pleasure and duty of supporting Naples and the city I represent."
ADL'S IDEA OF FOOTBALL
Also yesterday in the pre-match interview with Prime Video, AdL then touched again on the football system in general. “Napoli has never fallen. He had some stumbles, as happens in life, but we can go from here to saying that Napoli is no longer the Napoli of the Scudetto. I am of the opinion that the calculations are made in the end. Let's look at the European cups and the championship, let's see how the great managers of football who have the great responsibility of destroying it day after day, if instead they manage to make it more modern and effective, less verbose and long for the very young people who can no longer cope following football represented in an outdated and old way”.
– Read also: Why Manfredi wants to empty Naples of tables and gazebos on the street
Last March, AdL had relaunched the Thatcher model to combat violence at the stadium after the clashes in Naples caused by German Eintracht fans. “I hope that Meloni takes inspiration from what a prime minister, also a woman, did in England. The zero tolerance introduced by Margaret Thatcher against hooligans in the 1980s has borne excellent fruit. Why doesn't Ursula von der Leyen activate? Should we found a European football party?” To then unscrupulously attack the president of UEFA, Alexander Ceferin. “Criminals are everywhere and must be dealt with consciously. These elements should be considered as Black block. They moved with military techniques, backed and supported by Atalanta supporters with whom they are twinned, deploying assault schemes. Limits should be placed on the Schengen area", the Neapolitan mayor Manfredi also added.
After the summer celebrations for the title, he had instead added other elements to his idea of football. “I would ask the Minister of Education to imagine a couple of one-hour lessons a month, where the Spalletti or Ancelotti of the situation – said the Italian president – begins to tell the students, from elementary to high school, what it is a match, what a formation means, what the roles of the players are." And again, not only new but also multi-purpose stadiums. Even for weddings and communions. In terms of enjoyment of sports content, however, "I hope that Meloni will be able to pass the new law against piracy without ifs, without buts, without conditioning from large groups", he said. To resolve the compression of the calendars, however, AdL imagined a reform to play from April to October. “The weather is moving, let's evaluate this too,” he says. To then conclude his revolutionary thought by attacking the Melandri law and explaining that he has set aside the idea of two European championships . “Otherwise everyone will get angry. I said that 10 billion should be brought to the table, not the 4-5 that UEFA is preparing to guarantee from the next cycle."
THE ACCOUNTS AND SCENARIOS OF THE NAPLES CHAMPIONSHIP WINNER
Meanwhile, AdL tried to remedy the results crisis produced with Garcia on the bench by recalling Walter Mazzarri. Yesterday at the Bernabeu the Azzurri did more than well, losing 4-2 only in the final but demonstrating that they are recovering, both technically and mentally. Of course now we need to get back into the championship race.
In terms of accounts, however, the scudetto (and the Champions League quarter-finals reached for the first time in history in the '22-'23 edition) also brought a lot of glory to DeL a's coffers . The financial statements closed on 30 June and consulted by Calcio e Finanza certified record numbers. Profit of 79.7 million (against the red of 51.9 million in 2022), turnover of 359.2 million euros (against 175.9 million euros in the previous year), costs in line (from 241.1 to 242.5 million euros) and overall revenues of 359.2 million euros compared to 175.9 million in 2021-2022.
– Read also: Villone (former senator): I'll tell you about the wild Naples of taxis
Published on Policy Maker
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/de-laurentiis-manfredi-stadio-napoli/ on Thu, 30 Nov 2023 15:14:26 +0000.