The words of President Giulini

Cagliari Calcio president Tommaso Giulini spoke at the Lega Serie A meeting on Monday, March 23, at the club’s headquarters on Via Rosellini in Milan. Many topics were discussed, from the team’s final push to avoid relegation (with the renewed hope of being able to face upcoming away matches with all their fans in tow), to aspects related to the new stadium project and possible changes to the club’s ownership, including Elia Caprile and Marco Palestra, who have been called up by Italy’s Coach Gennaro Gattuso.

THE TEAM’S MOMENT
“We must approach these last eight games with our values ​​and the good things we’ve achieved throughout the season. We’ve achieved many positive things, but now comes the decisive moment.
We’re on track to achieve our goal: thirty points in thirty games and several talented young players. Today, we could be more relaxed if we hadn’t made two mistakes, the home match against Lecce and the away match in Pisa. Those two results put everything into question. We knew from the start that this would be our championship: we’re fully focused on our goal and have the values ​​to fight until the end.”

AWAY WITH THE FANS
After the break, there will be the away match in Reggio Emilia. We hope to have all our fans with us. We were penalized again in Pisa, as we were last season in Empoli. I will say this again today to my colleagues in the League: I believe the Observatory is a bit too heavy-handed in banning away matches for fans. Football is made up of fans, of opposition to the stadium, and this is also the beauty of this sport: last year, after winning the appeal at the TAR (Regional Administrative Court) regarding the away match in Empoli, we also wrote to Minister Piantedosi about it. I hope I am listened to, for the benefit of all fans, especially ours, which faces enormous difficulties: traveling from an island requires booking ferries, flights, and hotels weeks in advance. It is much more difficult for our fans to travel than for other fan groups on the mainland. I hope that from now on, all fans will have the opportunity to attend more matches; we need it. In particular, in this final rush, being able to play the last four away games with the fans by our side would be fundamental.”

CAGLIARI’S PLAYERS IN THE ITALIAN NATIONAL TEAM
Caprile and Palestra are doing well this year, they deserved their call-up. Elia earned it with great performances in the first half of the year. Marco, in my opinion, has had even more consistency throughout the season: he’s a player I, frankly, knew little about. So I have to give all the credit to our sporting director, Guido Angelozzi, who brought him to us. Unfortunately, as you well know, we’ll only enjoy him for this season. I wish Elia and Marco success in achieving the goal all Italians hope for: I have three sons who haven’t yet seen a World Cup with Italy, so you can imagine how much I care about that. I wish them both the best of luck, and the entire national team. I’d like to mention two other young players who have done very well with us this year: Obert, who has shown great consistency; and, in flashes, a great Kılıçsoy. Both will also go on to play the World Cup qualifying playoffs with the senior national team. I care. having worked very well since the beginning of the season on these four guys, I remember everyone, including the two of them.”

ABOUT CAPRILE AND PALESTRA
Palestra is a very interesting player, whose role still needs to be fully defined. This year, we’ve also used him in a more advanced position: for a complete evaluation, he should also be seen consistently at full-back. Much will depend on the needs of the team that uses him, be it Atalanta or another club. He’s a young player, with the right mentality, and I’m convinced he’ll be a big name in the next 10-15 years: he has the mentality to play plenty of games in the Champions League and for the national team. As for transfer market interest in Caprile? It’s all very premature: we know that scouts have arrived for him, including from abroad. However, there are no negotiations underway.

ON THE NEW STADIUM
“Our project is significantly ahead of many other cities. We submitted the updated Economic and Financial Plan for the Final Project in December and are awaiting final approval from the City of Cagliari, confirming the declaration of public interest and initiating the process of issuing an international tender for the concession, with subsequent construction work starting.
At this time, discussions are still underway to resolve two main issues. The first concerns the building rights and the resulting guarantees that could be granted to the lending banks. The building rights, which have been in place since the beginning of the process, are required by law and are present in all proceedings in other cities. Regarding the guarantees, while we believe we have submitted a fully legitimate request, we have shown ourselves willing to listen and, together with our lawyers, find a balanced solution that protects both the project and the needs of the City. The second issue concerns the annual fee and parking in the area. On this point, I would like to clarify that the annual fee of approximately €2.5 million that Cagliari Calcio pays is one thing. will pay the special purpose vehicle for managing matchday, and a very different matter is the relationship between the special purpose vehicle and the Municipality for managing the facility. To ensure the economic and financial sustainability of the project, the latter should be charged a nominal fee or nothing, as is the case in many other cities. This is even more true if the Municipality were to retain the parking space for itself on days other than matchday, which was originally intended to be the responsibility of the concessionaire.

ON THE NEW STADIUM
“Our project is significantly ahead of many other cities. We submitted the updated Economic and Financial Plan for the Final Project in December and are awaiting final approval from the Municipality of Cagliari, confirming the declaration of public interest and initiating the process of issuing an international tender for the concession, with subsequent construction work to begin.

ON THE NEW SHAREHOLDERS
“The corporate situation is very simple. I have always stated from the beginning that I would not want to, nor could I, manage a project as important for all of Sardinia as the new stadium alone. We recently had the opportunity to bring new investors into the Club, who have a clear interest in the stadium project. Consequently, should the project proceed as hoped, their involvement could shift from a minority to a majority position.”