'Bureaucracy is killing Italy' - Rocco Commisso

Rocco Commisso. An Italian American Billionaire Businessman. He is the owner of Italian Serie A club Fiorentina. Photo: ANDREAS SOLARO/AFP via Getty Images

Rocco Commisso has warned Fiorentina ‘could never afford to compete at the highest level’ without a new stadium and that ‘bureaucracy is killing Italy’.


Commisso has so far been foiled in his attempts to secure planning permission for a successor to the Artemio Franchi.

Now, the owner is calling for more help from authorities, even threatening to sell Fiorentina if he has to wait another 15 years.

“The Premier League has demonstrated the critical importance of new stadia and their impact to growing Club revenues,” he told Forbes.

“Look at Tottenham, Manchester City, and Arsenal. According to the latest Deloitte Top 20 Football Report, the average annual revenues of those Top 20 Clubs is €464 million. Fiorentina is at €93million. 

“Without the game-day/commercial activities, revenues that could be generated with a new stadium, Fiorentina could never afford to buy and pay top players to compete at the highest level of European football, while staying in compliance with the UEFA Financial Fair Play rules.

“In this horrible economic crisis, especially in Florence, where tourism has hit a low point, it is incumbent on the Italian and Florence local government to enact laws that enable foreign investors to make infrastructure investments ‘fast, fast, fast.’

“The bureaucracy is killing Italy. With all the permitting and approvals—from start to finish— it could easily take five to ten years to build a new stadium.

“In fact, in Florence, they have been discussing a new stadium over the past 15 years. No investor has the patience to wait that long.”