The stadium that will host the Super Cup, the King Saud University Stadium, cost 51 million euros. Gattuso, Buffon and many testimonials will be present, from Baggio to Capello
Riyadh’s “big eye” already knows what it will look at all week. Saudis must have read Tolkien or seen and re-watched Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings. The Kingdom Centre, the fourth tallest skyscraper in the city at 302 metres, recalls the tower of Barad-dur, home of Sauron, the fiery eye of the novel “that pierces shadows and flesh”. The modern version monopolizes the skyline and targets the 25,000-seat King Saud University Stadium, home of the Italian Super Cup.
The Super Cup stadium
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The semi-finals and final will be played here, just like last year (sixth time in Arabia). It is the home of Cristiano Ronaldo, ever closer to scoring a thousand goals in his career, and of a trio of well-known faces from Serie A: Brozovic, Coman and João Felix, currently top scorer in the Saudi League ahead of CR7 with 11 goals. Not bad. The facility is also known as Al-Awwal Park and has a nickname of its own: they call it “the perimeter of horror”. But the reality is very different. The King Saud, built of perforated steel, changes color depending on the sun and how the lights reflect on the surrounding sand. It can be brown or golden. It cost 51 million euros and will be modernized for the 2034 World Cup, awarded to Saudi Arabia. The seats are yellow and blue: the colors of Al-Nassr, currently leading the championship.
The familiar faces
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Napoli, Inter, Milan and Bologna will battle in this context and in a packed stadium: Napoli-Milan – scheduled for tomorrow at 8pm Italian time – is already sold out, while for Inter-Bologna there are few tickets left. There will also be several well-known faces in the stands: Rino Gattuso, coach of the national team, and Gigi Buffon will see the semi-final and final, as will Marco Materazzi, while on 22 December – the date of the last match – there will also be various ambassadors such as Roberto Baggio, Bobo Vieri, Ciro Ferrara, Leonardo Bonucci, Christian Panucci, Vincent Candela and Fabio Capello, winner of four Italian Super Cups as a coach (three with Milan, one with Roma). Finally, for Serie A, Giorgio Chiellini, Juve’s Director of Football Strategy, the CEO of Juventus, will be at the final. of Parma Federico Cherubini, the vice-president of Udinese Stefano Campoccia and Adriano Galliani, another veteran of the competition. The CEO welcomed the teams present. of the League Luigi De Siervo and the Head of Competitions Andrea Butti. Gigi Di Biagio, coach of the Saudi U23 team, will also be in the stands. Yesterday he won the Gulf Cup. It remains to be seen whether Simone Inzaghi, coach of Al Hilal second in the championship, will also be there.
prize money
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Chapter awards. Whoever wins the Super Cup will have 9.5 million euros, to which another million and a half will be added for playing a friendly match against the winner of the Saudi Super Cup. The losing finalist, however, will receive 6.7 million. For the two defeated semi-finalists 2.4 million each. Furthermore, for the 16 teams in the championship not involved in the final four, another two million euros to be divided. An ever richer competition.
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