The stadium that will host the Super Cup, King Saud University Stadium, cost €51 million. Gattuso, Buffon, and many other celebrities, from Baggio to Capello, will be in attendance
The “big eye” of Riyadh already knows what it will be watching all week. The Saudis must have read Tolkien or watched Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings over and over again. The Kingdom Centre, the city’s fourth tallest skyscraper at 302 meters, is reminiscent of 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 points to the 25,000-seat King Saud University Stadium, home of the Italian Super Cup.
The semi-finals and final will be played here, just like last year (the sixth time in Saudi Arabia). It is the home of Cristiano Ronaldo, who is getting closer and closer to 1,000 career goals, and a trio of familiar faces from Serie A: Brozovic, Coman, and João Felix, currently the Saudi League’s top scorer ahead of CR7 with 11 goals. Not bad. The stadium is also known as Al-Awwal Park and has its own nickname: they call it ‘the perimeter of horror’. But the reality is quite different. The King Saud, built of perforated steel, changes color depending on the sun and how the light reflects on the surrounding sand. It can be brown or golden. It cost €51 million and will be modernized for the 2034 World Cup, which has been awarded to Saudi Arabia. The seats are yellow and blue: the colors of Al-Nassr, currently leading the league.
The familiar faces— Napoli, Inter, Milan, and Bologna will battle it out in this setting and in a packed stadium: Napoli-Milan—scheduled for tomorrow at 8 p.m. Italian time—is already sold out, while there are only a few tickets left for Inter-Bologna. There will also be several familiar faces in the stands: Rino Gattuso, coach of the national team, and Gigi Buffon will watch the semi-final and final, as will Marco Materazzi, while on December 22—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, Director of Football Strategy at Juventus, Parma CEO Federico Cherubini, Udinese Vice President Stefano Campoccia, and Adriano Galliani, another veteran of the competition, will be at the final. The teams will be welcomed by the CEO 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, currently second in the league, will also be there.
Prize money— Prizes. The winner of the Super Cup will receive €9.5 million, plus another €1.5 million for playing a friendly match against the winner of the Saudi Super Cup. The losing finalist, on the other hand, will receive €6.7 million. The two defeated semifinalists will receive €2.4 million each. In addition, the 16 teams in the league not involved in the final four will share another €2 million. An increasingly lucrative competition.
