Rome's candidature for the 2024 Olympic Games continues in its momentum and is increasingly becoming a national candidature. After Cagliari's designation for sailboat races, here are the choices of the cities that will be mentioned in the dossier regarding the football tournament. From North to South, it is a top team, with 11 hosting cities: Turin, Milan, Verona, Udine, Genoa, Bologna, Florence, Rome, Naples, Bari and Palermo. The tournament, which will be arranged in two parts involving the entire Italian peninsula, according to the current state of the art, would take place like this: the qualifying rounds with games at Turin’s Juventus Stadium, Genoa's Luigi Ferraris, Udine's Friuli, Verona’s Bentegodi, Bologna’s Dall’Ara, Florence’s Franchi, Bari’s San Nicola and Palermo's Barbera. The quarter finals and the semifinals at Milan's Meazza and Naples’ San Paolo and the two finals at Rome’s Olimpico.

This part of the dossier dedicated to football was illustrated by CONI President Giovanni Malagò, the President of the Rome 2024 Promotion Committee, Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, the Vice President of Rome 2024 Luca Pancalli, the General Coordinator of Rome 2024 Diana Bianchedi and CONI Secretary General Roberto Fabbricini, during a presentation that took place at the headquarters of the Committee.

"The choice of city demonstrates that this is the candidature of the whole Country - emphasised Malagò -. It is easy to think of grouping Turin with Genoa, Udine with Verona, Bologna with Florence, Bari with Palermo. Milan and Naples were left out and they will be guaranteed at least one of the quarter final matches and one semifinal. At present, the Italian stadiums that meet the requirements are four: the Olympic, where we will make the last technology upgrade to host a round of the 2020 European Championships; the Juventus Stadium, which has recently hosted a final of the European League; San Siro, which in May will host the Champions League final, and the Friuli. On 17 February we will present the final dossier to IOC. But we have another year’s time for any variables".

"From Turin to Udine, Verona, Milan, from Bologna to Florence, from Bari to Naples, Palermo and Rome itself. With ten stadiums plus the Olimpico, we cover the entire national territory - adds Luca Cordero di Montezemolo -. All these facilities represent the Italian football tradition. Many of these are already up to Olympic standards, other will be upgraded, also due to current developments, which are going at the speed of light. If we think that in 2020 we will have cars with no driver, in 2024 technology will have a fundamental all-encompassing role". "Thanks to the addition of these locations in Rome's Olympic candidature dossier - continues Montezemolo - these marvellous Italian cities will have the possibility, for the first time, to live the Olympic dream, as has already happened for Rome and Naples in 1960 and for Turin in 2006. The candidature of Italy's Capital for the 2024 Olympics and Paralympics becomes the candidature of the whole of Italy".

Talking about dossier preparation, the General Coordinator of Rome 2024, Diana Bianchedi, explains that "the momentum of our activities is very intense and the unity of purposes is very strong in our work with all institutions". Luca Pancalli, Vice President of the Rome 2024 Committee, highlights instead the "invisible work" of the Committee because "a great candidature starts by intercepting a critical mass on the territory, transforming it in something positive". For this reason the President of the Italian Paralympic Committee is working with Rome’s municipal Presidents "to explain to citizens with transparency what we are doing, to convince people of the opportunity that comes with hosting the Games, clarifying that there will not be any cathedrals in the desert and that everything will be done in the interest of the city