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Forza Roma Sempre!

Last week was exactly three years since Paulo Dybala joined Roma. And this is a very personal story for me, even if it feels more bitter with each passing year.

Roma doesn't spoil us with happy endings too often, but I've still witnessed many good moments. I remember May 25, 2015, when we snatched a Champions League spot from Lazio in a decisive Derby della Capitale. I vividly remember that incredible comeback against Barcelona (except for the last 10 minutes, emotions shut off my memory after the 3rd goal). But I would say my happiest day as a Roma fan was still July 18, 2022.

Back then, there was a feeling of Roma's inevitable ascent after the agony of the Pallotta era. Yes, there were still limitations (including the FFP rules we had to abide by), but the Friedkins had signed Mourinho, who immediately won a European trophy, albeit a third-tier one. Lorenzo Pellegrini was tearing it up for us, and Tammy was scoring more goals than Harry Kane. Nicolo Zaniolo was a fiery winger in every sense, both on and off the field. Smalldini was our English wall, and Rui Patricio was the best player in the Conference League final.

And into this team, the Friedkins managed to lure Paulo Dybala for free. If the Roma Siamo Noi newsletter had existed back then, you would have spent the second half of the summer listening to my expectations for the upcoming season and my thoughts that with such a squad, we could even challenge for the Scudetto. It seemed logical at the time. But even if not immediately, there was a clear feeling that Roma had a complete squad and wise leadership. It seemed major titles weren't far off.

Then came Budapest and the dickhead Anthony Taylor, and I will never forget Dybala’s tears after that lost final that shattered our CL dreams when we were so close. Then came Mourinho's agony, as he couldn't handle it and started to throw tantrums. Pellegrini faded with Dybala's arrival. Tammy had a weak season, tore his ACL, and ultimately became a laughingstock of a forward. Zaniolo turned out to be quite a piece of shit who'd be better off not coming back to Rome ever again. Smalling is enjoying the Arabian sun, while Patricio is warming the softest bench in Italy. And most importantly, by 2025, the Friedkins are far ahead of Boehly in the "Craziest American Owners" nomination; only Cardinale might be their competitor.

But in this Colosseum of unfulfilled dreams, Paulo Dybala remains. He's not a demigod; he's prone to injuries, and sometimes he has off-days, especially when playing through pain. Dybala is a person who, for me, has become even more valuable amidst all these defeats and shattered hopes. Because he didn't chase money, because he didn't chase trophies, because he refused to leave even under pressure, endured a period of undeserved neglect, and never stopped fighting for the team and shining.

Usually, I look to the team's future with hope, but right now, I have no optimism, and it's unlikely to appear anytime soon. So, I will simply enjoy Dybala's play, just as I once enjoyed Totti's. The ghosts of old wounds still ache, but Roma historically has been famous not so much for trophies as for its leaders and legends. Paulo Dybala is our leader for the third season now. And this leader is becoming a legend. Although, who am I kidding – in my eyes, he already is.

Never ask a man his salary, a woman her age, or a Roma fan about the stadium. For the past decade, the stadium has been a source of sad jokes and a monument to Italian corruption, but in reality, it's a far from linear process. To understand why there are so many complications with building the stadium, we have to delve into Italian politics.

A stadium isn't just a beautiful arena, a club museum, and a network of eateries; it's, first and foremost, huge money. And there's a fierce battle for this money between clubs and the city council. As long as the stadium is city-owned, the city council can ramp up rental prices so most of the stadium revenue goes directly to the city of Rome. Their position is simple and almost insulting: "What if we close the Olimpico for you? What will you do? Go play in Frosinone at a stadium with a capacity of 16,000?"

For the club, the stadium is also crucially important, it allows to keep all income from games, and make more on naming rights and advertising space sales, concerts, rental income from various souvenir shops and food stands. Preliminary estimates suggest that building its own 60,000-seat stadium would generate an annual revenue of €80 million. That's huge money for Italy.

Very few clubs in Italy own a stadium. Almost all of them are doing better than Roma thanks to this financial head start:

I didn't just rattle off these statistics for no reason (even though I’m a sucker for numbers): the stadium is important for Roma precisely in the context of sustainable growth. In almost every case, acquiring a stadium gave the team the momentum to move to the next level. In our case, that would be a fight for the Scudetto for sure.

In Roma's modern history, there have been two major projects aimed at securing permission to build a stadium. These were two completely different projects, with different executors, methods, and stories. In the public consciousness, they've merged, but that's a big mistake, and I'll explain why.

James Pallotta decided to act quickly and take what he wanted by storm. If the city council wanted money so badly, why not just give it to them? With the help of expensive American alcohol and, presumably, suitcases with interesting contents, James Pallotta gained the favor of Rome's mayor, Ignazio Marino. Marino himself is a Roma fan and gladly pushed through the public interest declaration. This public recognition declaration means that the stadium construction is recognized as being in the city's interest and cannot be shut down by just a mayoral decree.

Pallotta's project had everything: the idea of naming the stadium after Francesco Totti (who was, by the way, still an active player at the time), the proposal to build platforms for players so they could emerge from underground like ancient Roman gladiators before their stands, and the plan to build a "red and yellow wall" by placing the Curva Sud right up against the pitch and making it almost vertical.

And everything would have been fine; relations were at the highest level, and the city council was ready to make the necessary decisions quickly. But then disaster struck. The loyal mayor, Ignazio Marino, was caught in a corruption scandal (what a “surprise” for Italy) and was forced to resign. As a result of the elections, Virginia Raggi became the new mayor. That's when the problems began.

Raggi – a very beautiful woman if you were to ask me – supports Lazio, but that's only half the problem. Far worse is that she was a representative of the "Movimento 5 Stelle" party, which was a populist anti-elitist project that made its name and reputation by fighting corruption. The "Five Star Movement" is generally opposed to large-scale construction projects and looks for corruption everywhere, and Pallotta's approach deeply displeased them.

Nevertheless, the public interest had already been signed by the previous mayor, and the project couldn't simply be cancelled. But it could be stifled with endless checks and approvals until the club itself gave up on its stadium construction plans. That's what they chose to do.

This period was marked by emotional swings: Raggi publicly seemed ready to support, but then one commission was categorically against it, or another district head vetoed it. The party leader, Beppe Grillo, came to Rome and promised to sort things out, but nothing changed. As Raggi herself later admitted, they had decided from the beginning to kill the project, and these stories were just a smokescreen.

The mayor achieved her goal: the project was withdrawn by the club, James Pallotta completely fell out with the fans, and he sold the club. A new chapter began.

The Friedkins quickly realized that they couldn't get anywhere with Virginia Raggi and decided to wait for the new mayoral elections. There were four candidates: Roberto Gualtieri, Enrico Michetti, Virginia Raggi, and Carlo Calenda. Raggi and Calenda didn't make it to the second round, and the right-wing Michetti and the left-wing Gualtieri reached the final.

They made similar-sounding promises about the stadium but with very different substance. Michetti didn't hide his support for Lazio but promised to approve the stadium project "within the first 100 days" and campaigned with rhetoric that the city should provide all assistance in building arenas for both Roma and Lazio. Gualtieri politically supported the more popular Roma, but wasn't a fan and cautiously promised support and progress in stadium development. It was unclear what was better – Michetti's sharp and unpredictable decisions or Gualtieri's snail-paced progress.

In any case, Gualtieri won with 60% of the votes and became the new mayor of Rome, and Friedkins contacted him to discuss the stadium. They had a fundamentally different style of doing business from Pallotta’s: they didn't present any loud announcements until the very end; for years, the stadium was represented by a single schematic drawing – no models, no promises to name the arena "New Colosseum" or to erect a 10-meter golden statue of Francesco Totti at the entrance.

At the same time, they were slowly and painstakingly going through commissions, and there are an awful lot of them: the stadium has to be approved by numerous commissions at the district, borough, and city council levels. And approval has to happen twice: first, that same public interest agreement (this is a new project in a new location), and then the presentation and approval of the final project.

A lot of time was spent on the preparatory phase, and on May 9, 2023, the Roman city council voted for the public interest in the Roma stadium. This was a big victory; work could now begin on the actual stadium project.

From May 2023 to July 2024, the project itself was actively being developed. Working against the stadium at that time was the "Nay Committee," which was doing everything it could to find various bureaucratic obstacles. It was almost no secret that this committee was connected to Lotito, who is simultaneously the owner of Lazio and an Italian senator from the center-right. The Roma stadium is disadvantageous to him both as the owner of Lazio and as a politician opposing Gualtieri.

The "Nay Committee" caused a lot of trouble: at their request, studies were halted for numerous reasons. First, rare bird nests were found on the stadium site, and they had to wait for the birds to hatch their eggs. Then, during excavations, a piece of ancient Roman aqueduct ruins was discovered, which, in their opinion, was of immense historical value.

It didn't end there; stadium opponents even staged protests demanding the preservation of a park that was planned to be demolished for stadium construction. They wrote tearful appeals:

“The area covered by the Roma stadium project is currently mostly covered by urban forest with unique fauna and flora. In short, it is an area that symbolizes environment, ecology, clean air, the fight against pollution in one of the most exploited areas of Rome.”

You can judge the level of unique flora and fauna for yourself. But in this unique forest lived equally unique master auto mechanic elves who were very reluctant to leave their native lands. They didn't have ownership rights to their homes and workshops, but they had lived there for many years and began actively suing the city council, which decided to give this plot to the arena.

All of this significantly slowed down the project: as long as debates about the value of yet another piece of aqueduct are ongoing, further excavations and studies are impossible. In the end, of course, the ruins will be recognized as an ordinary object, but when will that be? As long as the lawsuit is ongoing, you can't demolish the workshops and prepare the soil there. This all dragged on for months.

But now, everything has improved. In July 2024, Roma finally presented a new, colorful stadium project – it will have over 60,000 seats, the largest fan stand in Europe, and other beautiful features.

In September, the lawsuits concerning the preservation of the workshops ended, the court sided with the city council, and the problem with the illegal structures was definitively resolved. The land is being fully returned to city ownership and prepared for transfer to Roma. We are finally conducting all necessary studies and will await approval of the final project.

It's too early to celebrate, but I see positive momentum. For the first time ever, concrete actions are being taken on the ground, and that instills optimism. If the plans are to be believed, we will begin construction in 2025. Theoretically, there's still hope to finish by 2027 and give the club the most luxurious anniversary gift. And I think we can allow ourselves to dream for a second and imagine the 100^th club birthday celebration in the new stadium in the status of reigning champions 🤤