Napoli's Qualiano training ground deal risks falling apart

Three days after a summit with a notary and the mayor to clear the mortgage on the land, journalist Manuel Parlato says the picture is far messier: multiple owners to track down, plots under judicial seizure and old lawsuits still open.

by Rosaria CimminoThursday 8 October, 23:25 CET· 3 hours ago

Qualiano, Parlato: «Terreni sotto sequestro e proprietari irreperibili, rischia di saltare tutto» — Grafica Arena Napoli

Three days after Monday's summit in Qualiano between Napoli's project team, mayor Raffaele De Leonardis and a notary aimed at clearing the mortgage on land earmarked for the club's new training ground, a far more alarming account of the negotiation has emerged. Manuel Parlato, a journalist with Radio Club 91 and Canale 21, used his YouTube channel to explain why the deal is in serious danger of collapsing.

According to Parlato, De Laurentiis and the landowners have reached only "a general agreement", along with a letter of intent and a declared willingness to acquire the land. That is not enough: the plots do not belong to a single owner but to several people who need to be met one by one, and some of them cannot be traced. Making matters worse, some of the land is under judicial seizure over old court cases that are still open, with lawyers and notaries working to try to unblock the situation.

Parlato compares Qualiano to Monterusciello, the other site where Napoli had reached a preliminary agreement before pulling out — he believes Qualiano "may be even more complicated". A declared interest, he points out, is not the same as an actual purchase: it needs signatures from all parties, "especially the other side", and those signatures are still missing. The figure Parlato puts on the table is telling: De Laurentiis has looked at 27-28 plots of land in his 22 years running the club without securing a single one.

The council's stance adds to the pressure. The mayor of Qualiano has said he will not discuss the matter "until there is a definitive signature" — a sign that, from the other side of the table, the deal is not considered closed at all. Parlato believes De Laurentiis will soon have to choose: look for another site, or step back from a negotiation that had, at least in intent, seemed to be heading in the right direction.

For Parlato the issue goes beyond the training ground. The stadium question has also been stuck for years, and he calls it "maybe ten times more complicated" than the training centre. It is a comparison that weighs on De Laurentiis's running of the club rather than on Allegri's team, but anyone waiting for a modern facility at Castel Volturno (the training ground) — still without a training centre of its own after four league titles — cannot ignore it.

On the pitch, the immediate priority is Saturday 10 October's game against Frosinone at the Maradona. But the question of what Napoli will be left with, in terms of facilities, once the De Laurentiis era ends weighs more heavily now than it did three days ago.