‘Now or never for Roma stadium’

By Football Italia staff

Roma President James Pallotta warns final approval for the new stadium must arrive by July or “that’ll be it and we won’t be here”.

The American owner has been trying to get a new arena built in the Tor Di Valle area, but the project has been hit by a series of delays.

In December the local council approved the Giallorossi’s plans for the Stadio della Roma, but the green light still hasn’t been given to begin construction.

“You know it’s going along, I have some meetings on that,” Pallotta told reporters this morning.

“At the end of the day if they don’t get the stuff accelerated and going quickly we won’t have a stadium, that’ll be it and we won’t be here.

“So the fans have to get on to the people and tell them to get moving on the stadium. Everything’s pretty much close to done and if it gets past any time period… June 30, or July, it’ll take it out another year and we won’t have a stadium.

“We just can’t afford to do that, no-one can afford to do it. We’ve spent over €60m already on the stadium.

“Nobody knows that, one of the issues with when you’re trying to buy players in transfer markets is the other stuff we’re going through.

“We’ve spent well over €60m - it might be €65-70m - going through the process, the drawings, the delays… everything.

“You just can’t keep spending money like that when you’re not getting the returns that you need in time, so we need that stadium.”

Pallotta was also asked about the Lupi’s Serie A form, and admitted he isn’t happy with results in the league.

“I think we’re a better team than the way we’ve been playing. Since the Genoa game in December I don’t think we’ve played as well as we can.

“I think also we’ve had a bunch of injuries, I’m not happy about how much of that we’d had and then it’s tough sometimes playing in the Champions League and having to get ready for those games too.

“But, no, I don’t think the players are happy, I don’t think anybody’s happy that we’re not right up there when you look at what we were doing, up until the Genoa game we were right there.

“We’ve got seven big games left, starting Sunday.”

‘Now or never for Roma stadium’





Watch Serie A live in the UK on Premier Sports for just £9.99 per month including live LaLiga, Eredivisie, Scottish Cup Football and more. Visit: https://www.premiersports.com/subscribenow