Le Pays De France - Milan and Inter back on long road towards a new San Siro

The announcement on Tuesday that a "positive" meeting was held between the two clubs, mayor of Milan Giuseppe Sala and Italy's culture and sport ministers relaunched a project which was abandoned in 2023 after it spent over three years winding its way through the bureaucratic and political corridors.

That project -- originally priced at 1.3 billion euros ($1.4 billion) -- will have to be revised to include only a partial demolition of the existing, city-owned San Siro, the site of which would be used for green space and a range of sports facilities and entertainment venues.

Meanwhile a new stadium, which in the previous project was planned to have a capacity of 60,000, would be built in the area to the immediate west of the current ground which is currently occupied by car parking and a local park.

However this time round the clubs will have to agree to purchase the land, which according to latest reports is set to be valued at around 200 million euros.

That sale would take time assuming it is even approved by Milan city council, and given that there was strong local opposition to the project last time, there is no guarantee of a vote in the clubs' favour.

- Left in dark -

Sources within the council told AFP any vote would be on a knife edge as councillors across the political spectrum have been angered by what they see as a bypassing of local democracy, as Sala tries to not become the mayor who let two of the world's biggest football clubs leave the city.

Earlier this year AC Milan acquired land in the nearby town of San Donato Milanese for 40 million euros -- and have still not officially abandoned the idea of building there -- while Inter looked at Rozzano and Assago, also to the south of the city.

One source told AFP that Milan city council has been left in the dark about both the revised San Siro project and a proposal, rejected as too costly by the two clubs, to modernise the current stadium.

They said a vote against the sale could bring down Sala's local government and potentially hand Italy's economic capital to the right-wing coalition which leads the country.

if the clubs move elsewhere it wouldn't just be politically costly, it would also leave the city with a huge unused stadium on its outskirts which would no longer bring in seven million euros in annual rent and would have to be either repurposed or demolished.

If the stadium -- due to host the 2026 Winter Olympics opening ceremony -- is still in public hands by the end of next year, a building protection order preventing the demolition of its second tier will automatically come into effect.

If Milan and Inter purchase the land before that deadline it would stop the restriction automatically being activated but Sala has said a complete demolition is "very unlikely, and the clubs know that".

- Supporters' concerns -

Fans also have concerns, in particular regarding the drastically reduced capacity compared to the current stadium, which regularly holds more than 70,000 spectators.

Not only did the previously proposed stadium have some 15,000 fewer seats for the two best-supported teams in Italy, who each have 40,000 season ticket holders, it was also planned to have a minimum of 9,000 corporate hospitality places, increasing to 13,500 for some events.

"We have always believed from our experience that any stadium would need to have a capacity of at least 70,000," says Giuseppe Munafo, the president of major Milan supporters' association AIMC.

"Our position is that we would like any new stadium to maintain the same number of seats that aren't for what we would call the elite, those places that are sold for 1,000 euros."

The AIMC is affiliated with Milan and brings together tens of thousands of fans.

Both the AIMC and the hardcore ultras supporters have staged protests at recent Milan matches over a startling increase in prices for general sale tickets.

(N.Lambert--LPdF)