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Napoli are threatening to move their Champions League tie against Liverpool to the opposite side of Italy over a row concerning their San Paolo home.

Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis has asked UEFA for permission for his club to this season play their European matches in Bari – which is more than 160 miles away on the east coast of the country.

Liverpool play at Napoli on Wednesday, October 3 with many Reds supporters having already made travel arrangements for the trip.

The situation has arisen due to the ongoing controversy over Napoli's 60,000-seater San Paolo stadium, which is owned by the local council.

The seats inside the stadium do not meet UEFA requirements, and the club have for several years been given an exemption to be able to play their home games in Naples.

However, a planned replacement of seats didn't take place this summer, threatening the granting of another UEFA exemption.

And De Laurentiis, who recently admitted the stadium has “become a joke”, has now expressed the possibility of moving European games to Bari's 58,00-capacity San Nicola stadium should Napoli's licence be revoked.

Speaking at this year's European Club Association summit in Split on Monday, De Laurentiis said to Corrierre dello Sport: “For me, it's a nightmare. Such a bad stadium limits the status of Napoli at an international level.

(Image: John Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)

“It's a shame. For this reason, I say enough: I don't want any more controversy, so I'll build my own stadium.

“And that's that. We can't go on like this anymore. Nobody can tell you to do anything if you put in your own money and have the land to build a stadium.

“In the meantime, I've asked UEFA to authorise us to play Champions League matches at Bari.

“I'll pay for 1,000 buses out of my own picket so Napoli fans can attend the match.”

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In May, Napoli chose Palermo’s Stadio Renzo Barbera for the ninth year in a row as their preferred destination for European competitions.

Since then, however, De Laurentiis has also become owner of Bari after the club were excluded from Serie B and demoted to Serie D for financial reasons. De Laurentiis' son, Luigi De Laurentiis Jnr, has become the Bari chairman.

“One thing is for certain – Bari will not be an appendix of Napoli, but they will be run as a separate entity, with separate efforts,” said De Laurentiis last month.

“We cannot mix Napoli and Bari, which are two separate cities, each with their own history and their own fans, who must be respected.”

Liverpool played out a goalless Europa League group stage draw at the San Paolo on their only previous visit to Napoli in 2010.

UEFA are yet to receive a request to move the fixture.