Football
Ben Gladwell, Italy correspondent 7y

Roma chief wants to see more new stadiums after plans get go-ahead

Roma general manager Mauro Baldissoni has said he hopes other Italian clubs will follow their lead after they were given the go-ahead to build a new stadium.

Complicated bureaucracy has recently hindered attempts by several Serie A clubs to construct new homes, with Juventus, Udinese and Sassuolo the exceptions because they redeveloped on sites where a stadium already existed.

Roma's plans will see the construction of Italy's first brand new football ground since the country hosted the 1990 World Cup.

Baldissoni said he hoped more clubs would follow and offered assistance to city rivals Lazio should they also seek to leave the shared, Olympic Committee-owned Stadio Olimpico.

"It's a complex story and a significant investment, and we are satisfied with the approach and what an investment like this means," Baldissoni told RAI radio.

"We are experimenting the new laws on stadiums -- we are like a test.

"We've pushed the government to draw up a specific law and the government has been by our side, as has the region, because we have got to work on things together for the good of the whole system.

"Everybody in Italy should be building new stadiums, not only in Rome. We know that Lazio are also bidding for one, and we are absolutely supporting Lazio on this."

Rome's city council passed the Roma project at the end of lengthy talks last week following significant revisions to the initial plans.

Club president James Pallotta had said it would be "catastrophic" if the plans were rejected, but Baldissoni denied the American businessman would have quit.

"He never said that," Baldissoni added. "All he did was ensure there was a lot of attention given to such an investment. It is only right that he did that and that the whole city were in the loop."

Roma hope to be playing in their new ground by the start of the 2019-20 season.

But the council has insisted that work on infrastructure including railway improvements must be completed before the stadium is opened.

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