Cagliari president Tommaso Giulini also attended the press conference introducing Pietro Accardi and Max Canzi, the club's new sporting director and youth sector director, respectively. And the discussion inevitably turned to the stadium issue, given the issues that have emerged in recent weeks . "We're not far off now, and I don't think the administration's timelines of presenting the project to the council by June and issuing a tender by July are impossible to meet," he said. "But I think that, even if it were September or October, it's normal for a project like this, going through the scrutiny of so many bodies, to experience delays."
Giulini strongly criticizes the many steps that have been necessary over the years to reach the current state of Cagliari's new stadium project. "In the last ten years, we've spent six or seven evaluating technical issues. I believe wasting two or three months evaluating financial issues is the least of the problems along the way. It's been little discussed. And I think it's shameful to have spent ten years getting to the decision-making conference, which approved the project a year ago . Now we're on the home stretch, but it's normal to be two or three months late. What's not normal is what happened in the previous ten years, and I urge the government, or anyone who can help other cities, to think carefully about this. Otherwise, it will be very complicated for Italian football."
The stadium issue is also tied to the change of ownership, with the new American shareholders—who joined in November—taking a minority stake from Giulini and potentially exceeding 50% depending on developments at the new facility. "First of all, I can only thank the new shareholders, who joined the club this year, offering a five-year, perhaps ten-year, perspective of further growth . I have a huge responsibility towards them: to further improve this club. What I've learned over the years is that a club improves from the ground up, not on the transfer market, because there are so many players," he adds.