Sport

Arrests in Rome stadium corruption probe

13 Jun, 2018

Nine suspected of corruption including vice-president of Lazio regional assembly.

Nine people including high-profile political and business figures were arrested on 13 June over alleged corruption relating to the construction of a new purpose-built stadium for Serie A football team AS Roma, according to Italian news agency ANSA.
The nine suspects arrested include the vice-president of the Lazio regional assembly, Adriano Palozzi of the Forza Italia party; Luca Lanzalone, the president of Rome's water and energy utility ACEA; and businessman Luca Parnasi. Six of the suspects are currently in jail while three are under house arrest, reports ANSA.
In February 2017 Rome mayor Virginia Raggi approved a radically-reduced version of the original stadium proposal, which has faced years of delays and is being pushed by AS Roma president Jim Pallotta – the Italo-American hedge fund manager who acquired the team in 2011.
Raggi gave her support to the scaled-back scheme in the southwest Tor di Valle suburb after AS Roma agreed to a 60 per cent reduction of the proposed surrounding park, which meant dropping plans for three high-rise office towers designed by American "starchitect" Daniel Libeskind. See related article.