INTER MILAN AND Milan revealed on Tuesday what their new shared home could look like after announcing a project designed by Populous, who drew up the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Named The Cathedral, the new stadium will be located in the same San Siro district of Milan as their current ground, officially called the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza.
🏟️ | STADIUM
— Inter 🏆🇮🇹 (@Inter_en) December 21, 2021
The concept presented by Populous, known as La Cattedrale, has been chosen for the @NuovoStadioMI project 👉 https://t.co/42M1l0CISL pic.twitter.com/9gkyp7ow3x
Milan and Inter said in a joint statement that the new stadium design is inspired by the world famous Duomo and Vittorio Emmanuele Galleries.
They did not reveal the capacity of the proposed new stadium but designs from Populous show a ground with fans close to the pitch.
Italian media report no more than 65,000 seats, a significant reduction on the current San Siro, and that matches should be played there from 2027.
The broader project will include over 110,000 square metres of green space with sport and leisure facilities which are either “free-of-charge or affiliated with the City of Milan”.
Both clubs have announced their choice of design after Milan city council confirmed the project’s “public interest”, a necessary hurdle before anything can be built, last month.
The vote came after centre-left mayor Giuseppe Sala won a second term in a landside local election victory in October.
Reigning Italian champions Inter and seven-time European kings Milan said they will now “aim to present a final project at a later stage in 2022″ after making adjustments in line with the city’s urban planning regulations.
The current San Siro is one of the game’s most iconic arenas, nicknamed ‘football’s La Scala’ and its future is uncertain.
It is due to host the opening ceremony of the 2026 Winter Olympics, and on Monday Sala said “if someone wants to rent the Meazza I’m ready to work with them”.
Official Statement: A new stadium for Milano ➡️ https://t.co/nzRd89RR3O
— AC Milan (@acmilan) December 21, 2021
Comunicato Ufficiale: Un Nuovo Stadio per Milano ➡️ https://t.co/LHcmphv4tL#SempreMilan pic.twitter.com/CAUL8NVGp3
This news comes on the same day as Inter confirmed that Italian prosecutors were investigating the sale of players carried out by the club in recent seasons, the latest probe into football transfer dealings in the country.
In a statement, the Italian champions said that they had given investigators documents relating to player sales in the 2017/18 and 2018/19 seasons, with prosecutors in Milan wanting to “verify the regular accounting of the related capital gains”.
Inter said that no-one at the club is under investigation, that no charges have been formally presented and that the investigations being carried out are preliminary.
Transfers in Italian football have been under the microscope since the country’s football federation [FIGC] launched its own investigation into a series of suspicious deals in October.
The majority of the transfers being looked at by the FIGC involve Juventus, who are also being investigated by prosecutors in Turin for allegedly making false communications to investors and issuing invoices for non-existent transactions.
That probe regards some €282 million ($319.2 million) of capital gains declared in Juve’s accounts from the past three seasons on a host of transfers.
