De Laurentiis set to sign Qualiano land deal for Napoli training centre

Aurelio De Laurentiis is ready to sign the preliminary agreement to buy the land at Qualiano. The signature is expected within hours of Thursday 29 October.

The negotiation over the land was already done, and this was the last step. The deal is close to completion, and a last-minute hitch looks unlikely this time.

The plan includes 10 pitches, a mini-stadium holding about 2,000 people and a residential block. The squad currently trains at Castel Volturno (the training ground) and sets off from there for away games. Qualiano would be a home for Napoli, built by Napoli. The club turns 100 this season, so this means more than bricks and mortar.

Two building projects and an uncertain ownership

Qualiano is one of two projects under way. The other is a new 70,000-seat stadium at San Giovanni a Teduccio, on the former Q8 site. Most of the clean-up of the land has been done, and Q8 has to finish it. The asking price is more than €20m for about 25 hectares, and a decision is expected by December.

The model is the one De Laurentiis discussed in Geneva with Gianluigi and Diego Aponte. Napoli would buy the land, and MSC would pay for some or all of a stadium costing between €800m and €1bn. Separately, an agreement to keep the summer training camp at Dimaro until 2029 is also close.

That leads to a question plenty of fans are asking. The president is buying land and planning building work in the same week that Matt Rizzetta's consortium lowered its offer to €1.3bn. It is also the week that Gianluigi Aponte's name has come up as a possible buyer of the whole club.

De Laurentiis first said "Napoli is not for sale". He later said "for the moment I have not decided to sell". Those two statements do not mean the same thing.

"For the moment I have not decided to sell"

Someone who signs a preliminary agreement for a training centre may be doing it because he wants to stay. He may also be doing it because a club with its own training centre is worth more to whoever buys it. We do not know which is true, and nobody outside that room does either. That is why we expect the club to say so.

The project still has to be judged on its own terms. Napoli have never had a training centre of their own. This is an investment in the club's infrastructure, whoever ends up benefiting from it.

Fans who are criticising Allegri for seventh place and 11 goals conceded in 9 games will not stop because of a signature at the notary's office. They should still accept that this is a serious investment, if it actually happens.

The next dates are already set. The preliminary agreement is signed first. Then, in December, comes the decision on the San Giovanni a Teduccio land. If the president's plans hold, work at Qualiano starts in January. That is the first promise that can be checked against the calendar.