ROME: Bid leaders for R0me’s campaign to win host rights to the 2024 summer Olympic Games have named 11 stadia from all across the country as proposed venues for the football competition.

The new Juventus stadium – on the site of the razed Delle Alpi – is the choice in Turin as well as the Olympic stadium in Rome plus Bari, Bologna, Florence, Genoa, Milan, Naples, Palermo, Udine and Verona.

Only one of the stadia used at the 2000 FIFA World Cup has been excluded, the one at Cagliari offshore in Sardinia which where the sailing competitions would take place.

The one question concerns the venue for the football final – whether it should be the Olympic Stadium or the future new home of Roma whose approval has been blocked for the time being in the planning stage.

CONI president Giovanni Malago hopes that the project will be given the go-ahead before the February 2017 deadline of submission of the final bid book proposals to the International Olympic Committee.

Malago said: “Let’s see what happens to the project in the next few months because the new stadium of Rome could be used not only for football but also as a venue for team sports, for baseball or other competitions.”

Milan and Napoli would each be guaranteed at least one quarter-final and one semi-final.

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