Ceferin: ‘Italy football infrastructure is poor’

Florence: UEFA President Aleksandar Ceferin is impressed with Fiorentina’s new training camp, but admits the level of Italy’s football infrastructure is ‘very poor’ and a lot must change to host EURO 2032.

Ceferin was in Florence, first for a visit to the Italy training camp at Coverciano, then to attend the opening of the new Viola Park, which was officially inaugurated this afternoon.

“This is probably the most beautiful training centre I have seen – and I have seen almost all of them at least once,” Ceferin told Sky Sport Italia.

However, the overall situation in Italy with stadiums remains extremely difficult and even the news they will co-host the 2032 European Championship with Turkey has not helped push through red tape.

In fact, Italy was originally going to propose hosting the tournament by itself, but had to share with Turkey, so there will be five stadiums in each country used for games.

“Italy’s infrastructure, compared to the level of football and the size of the country, is very poor. Of course I am optimistic, but I think the Government should start finally investing in infrastructure,” added Ceferin.

“If your country is so passionate about football and sports in principle, they would have to do more. For now, we are just hoping that everything will be fine.”

Italy has not yet confirmed which five stadiums will be used to host EURO 2032 matches, but at least two of them would need major restructuring work to be given the all-clear.