Cipess approves €150m to restyle the Maradona for Euro 2032

Italy's interministerial committee for economic planning (Cipess) met at Palazzo Chigi at 18:30 CET on Tuesday 29 September and signed off €150m in state funding to restyle the Diego Armando Maradona stadium. The move puts Napoli's Euro 2032 bid on the verge of becoming official, expected within hours.

The timeline presented to Cipess has work starting in January 2027 and finishing by 31 December 2029 — a year's buffer before 2030, the deadline by which UEFA must confirm that candidate venues meet its standards for the Euros.

The bid had already been talked up in recent days by minister Abodi, who backed Napoli's candidacy strongly. Tuesday's decision is the first time that political support has turned into actual money.

This process is separate from what the club is trying to build in parallel. De Laurentiis has revealed a letter of intent signed a month ago with Q8 for 38 hectares in Napoli Est, where he envisages a new 70,000-seat stadium built in around 24 months, funded by the club itself. The state-and-council-funded restyling of the Maradona and the club's own project elsewhere remain two separate paths, aligned in neither timing nor who is paying.

A public act, not the club's

For weeks the infrastructure question had gone no further than announcements — Forgione had warned that Napoli does not have the resources to build a stadium and a training centre at the same time. Tuesday brought the first concrete step, but it is an act of the state and the council, not the club: the money for Fuorigrotta's revamp does not come from De Laurentiis' coffers. Those who have been asking for a signal from the club on infrastructure are still waiting for one.

The next step is political and sporting: official confirmation of the host city is expected within hours. For UEFA's approval of the restyling, regional councillor Nino Simeone had pointed to a window between 10 and 15 October.