"Time is a gentleman. Sometimes sooner than expected. And it reveals with candor, with simplicity, even the most refined political-legal alchemies distilled to hide the most embarrassing truths. Like on the new stadium in Cagliari."
Thus begins a long note released by the former governor of Sardinia Christian Solinas dedicated to the new facility in the capital.
"For years - writes Solinas - I have been the object of a relentless attack on this point, with the most imaginative and unlikely reconstructions of my thinking. My position has always been clear: the Region, in my opinion, could have financed exclusively the sports facility in a clear relationship between public bodies . If the need was to give the fans and the whole of Sardinia a new stadium in line with the standards of international competitions and comfortable for players and spectators, I have always firmly said that the Region would do its part. And so it was. First a law, then a resolution of the Regional Council and therefore the Program Agreement signed by me and published in the Buras had made 50 million euros available to the Municipality of Cagliari ".
Solinas underlines the two conditions set by his administration, namely: «The resources will be attributed to the Municipality of Cagliari for the sole activities connected to the construction of the sports facility» and «the Region remains expressly extraneous to any relationship arising with third parties in any way in dependence on the construction of the activities which are the object of this agreement and that no action of recourse may be exercised against it».
Today, however, Solinas continues after the resolution for the Cagliari City Council n. 156 of 9.12.2024 and the draft of a new Program Agreement to be signed between the Todde regional council and the Zedda administration, «the mystery is revealed: the project does not only include the stadium and, therefore, the related costs also include the implementation of other entrepreneurial initiatives, which according to my Program Agreement would not have been financed with public funds, but would have had to be covered with private resources».
«Behind the smokescreen of the revision of the project norm with the reduction of the volumes of the areas adjacent to the stadium to favor equipped green areas, the proposed resolution of the City Council also provides - lists Solinas - the construction of a hotel in the stadium area with 126 rooms and approximately 2,000 square meters dedicated to spaces for conventions and corporate meetings; a wellness center of approximately 4,000 square meters; a sports bar, managed directly by the football club».
"In short - continues Solinas - a sleight of hand with which limits and mutual commitments between administrations are modified exclusively in favor of the proposing entity and which finally lays bare the real intentions of the parties: to finance with public money works that would not be financeable if not in violation of the rules of competition and the free market . In fact, it would be an unjustified state aid to an entrepreneurial entity that under the broad guise of a public sports facility would cover the construction of other structures in competition with others present in the territory and built with private resources".
"But by now it is understood - concludes Solinas - on the Island of the nuraghi some are more equal than others . And when certain things come from certain people, one does not judge what they do but one looks benevolently at who they are, to which circuits they belong and one forgives, erecting the sin to a virtue. Vae alteris!".
(Online Union)