Lazio and the Stadium Debacle

Lazio have caused quite an uproar throughout the calcio community yesterday. There are quite a few people confused as to what exactly happened, knowing that it involves two stadiums, Lotito, money, and CONI.

On Friday, Lazio were granted a UEFA license to play European matches in the Stadio Artemio Franchi next season. Since Lazio are currently in 4th, it seems very likely that the team will at least play in the Europa Cup if not the Champions’ League, and thus they needed to register a stadium with UEFA. On the surface this might not seem odd but it is to quite a degree; Lazio always play in the Stadio Olympico which is actually in Rome. The Franchi is in Florence and is Fiorentina’s home stadium. So why exactly would Lazio apply to play European matches there next season instead of in Rome?

The Stadio Olympico in Rome

In a word, because of money. Lazio owe CONI, the Italian Olympic Committee, two million Euros for use of the Olympico in the past. CONI President Gianni Petrucci has released a statement, claiming “This is quite pathetic. I had a good opinion of President Claudio Lotito, but this is a sneaky temporary measure. Lazio have the same deal in place as Roma for use of the Stadio Olimpico in 2011-12.” This seems to add further to the confusion- why would Lazio make a deal to play in two stadiums?

As Petrucci points out, it’s because the Franchi deal was made merely to buy the club some time to pay off their debts. Lazio now have until the end of June to pay the two million Euros that the club owes CONI. However, Lazio are far from happy about paying for this at all. The club have released a long statement with ten points outlining why they took such odd action against CONI.

Chief amongst their claims is that the contract was inherited from the Sergio Cragnotti era (the past President of Lazio) and is quite ludicrous financially: the club must pay 110 thousand Euros per game to rent the Olympico. Attempts to re-negotiate the contract have been rejected.

Lazio claim that the action they took was necessary, proclaiming that CONI would not have signed off for them to use the Olympico for European matches until the entire debt was paid off. However, Lazio needed to apply for a UEFA License on April 29^th, and thus needed to have a stadium in which to play. Since CONI wouldn’t agree for them to play in Rome, they instead struck up a deal to play in Florence.

CONI may think that this deal is temporary- remember, the President said that it was a “sneaky temporary measure”- but Lazio are claiming that they could indeed play in Florence in their European matches next season: “This is not a sneaky trick to avoid payment, but just a solution to guarantee the club can participate in UEFA competition. It should also prove how necessary it is to speed up the stadium laws and bring this matter to public attention.”

However, given that Lazio must pay the money by June, it seems as if they’ll end up in the Olympico like always. This entire issue points to one of the biggest flaws in calcio however- teams not having their own stadiums. Only Juventus have built their own stadium which they could profit from starting next season. All other teams must rent arenas from coucils or CONI, which means that matchday revenue is far below what most other countries bring in. Until all clubs follow Juventus’ path here, these sorts of things are likely to happen for a long time to come.

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Category: Serie A