Italy submitted its official candidate dossier of 14 venues across 13 cities to UEFA to host the UEFA European Championship in 2032, a tournament the country will co-host with Turkey, as reported by ilpost.it. The selection process reveals a stark modernization challenge: seven of the nominated stadiums require extensive structural renovations, while four or five venues do not yet exist and must be built from the ground up within a five-year window.
Italy Submits 14 Stadium Candidates for Euro 2032 Hosting Bid
The Italian Football Federation (FIGC) formally forwarded its venue evaluations to European football’s governing body, setting off a race against strict infrastructural deadlines. Italian football officials have until 2031 to whittle the list down to the final five host cities required for the tournament. The candidate list spans Bari, Bologna, Cagliari, Firenze, Genova, Lecce, Milano, Napoli, Palermo, Salerno, Torino, Verona, and Rome, with the capital city putting forward two venues. Ilpost.it noted that Serie A stadiums feature an average age of 56 years, while Serie B facilities average 74 years. By contrast, stadiums in the Turkish top flight boast an average age of approximately 20 years.
Aging Public Infrastructure Slows Modernization Efforts
Decades of bureaucratic complexity and public ownership models have hampered stadium development across Italy. UEFA mandates that all selected tournament venues must be fully operational and tested a full year ahead of kickoff, leaving Italian organizers a tight margin to complete multi-million-euro projects before 2031.
New Builds Face Planning and Funding Hurdles
Among the 14 proposed venues, several key projects exist only on paper or face early-stage hurdles. Rome submitted both the existing Stadio Olimpico and the proposed new stadium project in Pietralata, which received municipal approval, according to Agenzia Dire. Meanwhile, Cagliari and Bologna are still in preliminary stages. Bologna’s proposed 35,000-seat multi-functional arena near the city’s exhibition center moved into an operational phase following an agreement between the club and BolognaFiere, as reported by Agenzia Dire. The facility is designed to host trade fairs, congresses, and live music alongside football matches, utilizing existing road and rail links near BolognaFiere. In Milan, AC Milan and Inter Milan hold ownership of the current San Siro site and plan to demolish and rebuild a new stadium on the grounds, targeting completion by 2031. Verona included its city name in the FIGC dossier without clarifying the exact venue plan, though Hellas Verona presented a feasibility study for a redeveloped Stadio Marcantonio Bentegodi to the local municipal administration.
Renovation Plans Target Seven Historic Venues
The targeted venues include Stadio San Nicola in Bari, Stadio Artemio Franchi in Florence, Stadio Via del Mare in Lecce, Stadio Diego Armando Maradona in Naples, Stadio Luigi Ferraris in Genoa, Stadio Renzo Barbera in Palermo, and Stadio Arechi in Salerno. In Naples, municipal officials recently convened an operational meeting focusing on public space reorganization and parking infrastructure around the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona and the neighboring engineering campus of the Università Federico II, as detailed by the Comune di Napoli. Across these sites, only a handful of cities—such as Florence and Lecce—have active construction underway, and even those have encountered recurring delays.
Venues Meeting UEFA Standards Without Major Overhauls
Amid widespread infrastructural delays, only two candidate stadiums possess the modern amenities required to satisfy UEFA requirements without substantial capital investment. Rome’s Stadio Olimpico and Juventus’s privately owned Allianz Stadium in Turin—inaugurated in 2011—stand out as the exceptions capable of hosting elite international matches under current conditions.
Frequently Asked Questions About the Euro 2032 Stadium Bid
When must Italy finalize its host cities for Euro 2032?
The Italian Football Federation has until 2031 to select the final five host cities from the initial list of 13 candidate locations.
How many proposed venues do not currently exist?
Four or five of the 14 nominated stadiums have not yet been built and must be constructed before the tournament, including planned new grounds in Rome, Milan, Bologna, and Cagliari.
What is the average age of Italian football stadiums?
Stadiums in Italy’s top-tier Serie A average 56 years in age, while Serie B venues average 74 years old.
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