Football
Ben Gladwell, Italy correspondent 8y

Napoli president promises cash for Champions League qualification

Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis has promised heavy investment in the squad this summer, just as long as they can secure their place in the group stage of the Champions League next season.

De Laurentiis has made similar promises before but, without the guaranteed riches of European football's premier club competition, he has refused to loosen the purse strings significantly in previous transfer windows and admits he would be forced to do the same again if they do not hold onto second place.

"As far as the transfer market is concerned, if we go straight into the Champions League, then we are going to get very active indeed," De Laurentiis told Radio Kiss Kiss. "Otherwise we will do the same as before. Let's just see first how we finish the season off."

The Serie A club were beaten in the playoff for the Champions League last season and with such insecurity over whether or not they would be earning from group stage matches until right up to the transfer deadline, potential transfer targets were missed.

Should they finish third this season -- and they currently lead Roma by two points in a two-team battle for second -- they would face the same uncertainty until the end of August, which is why De Laurentiis has made direct qualification a condition for his summer investment.

He would not like that investment to be limited to the playing staff, however. De Laurentiis has been pushing for the city council to do something about the state of their Stadio San Paolo, which continues not to fulfil UEFA's standard regulations.

While the Azzurri have been given special dispensation to continue playing their home games in Naples, De Laurentiis still feels ashamed to welcome some of the continent's biggest clubs and their dignitaries to such a venue.

"We risk making fools of ourselves yet again when the top clubs, who we hope to host in the Champions League, come to town," he said.

"The San Paolo continues to be a problem and I'm very concerned. [Napoli mayor Luigi] De Magistris is a good person with plenty of willingness to do things, but I don't think anything will be done before October and this worries me a lot. We could have had work started straight away, on May 15."

Bureaucracy continues to block De Laurentiis' bid to renovate the San Paolo, even using his own money since the city council does not have the funds to support any major redevelopment works.

At least De Laurentiis has few complaints about what he is seeing from his side on the field.

"I'm very happy with Napoli's progress," he said. "We've already picked up as many points as we had in the entire first half of the season, when we were top, it's just that Juventus have made an extraordinary comeback.

"In terms of points and goals, we're doing well. There is great harmony within the squad. I'm satisfied, even though I know it's impossible to convince everybody."

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