City Football Academy Palermo, the first training centre owned by Palermo FC in over 120 years of history, was inaugurated this morning in Torretta, Sicily.
The symbolic ‘ribbon-cutting’ ceremony was attended, among others, by City Football Group and Palermo FC board member Alberto Galassi, City Football Group Managing Director of Global Football and Palermo FC board member Brian Marwood, Palermo FC President Dario Mirri and Palermo FC CEO Giovanni Gardini.
Special guests also included FIGC President Gabriele Gravina, Lega Serie A CEO Luigi De Siervo, Sicilian Region President Renato Schifani and Palermo Mayor Roberto Lagalla. To celebrate the historic day, the Club invited over 20 Rosanero legends to the Renzo Barbera Stadium, who, live from the giant screens set up on the pitch, followed and celebrated the inauguration together with thousands of Palermo fans.
“Today marks an extremely proud moment for both Palermo FC and our City Football Group family”, said Brian Marwood, Managing Director of Global Football at City Football Group and Palermo FC board member.
“The new CFA Palermo is much more than just a building. It is a home for our players and staff to grow and develop as we work to take Palermo to the next level and start the next chapter in the Club’s great history.”
“This new training facility is another example of our commitment to Palermo as we continue to bring world-class football infrastructure to this incredibly special community. We welcome the Rosanero family to their new home here in Torretta and look forward to what’s to come”.
Giovanni Gardini, CEO of the Rosanero Club, added:
“Being here to inaugurate the first sporting centre in the history of Palermo, just over a year after the arrival of the City Football Group, is a source of great pride.”
“It is concrete proof of what this Club is building day by day to ensure maximum efficiency for the team and all the people who work for the good of Palermo. Planning, sustainability and hard work: this is the only way we know to achieve our goals, which are the same as those of our supporters and all those who love these colours”.
CFA Palermo consists of two natural grass pitches of the same dimensions as the ‘Renzo Barbera’ pitch (105 x 68 m), a smaller natural grass pitch (32 x 32 m) dedicated to goalkeeper training, a Main Building and a Club House, which blends a traditional Sicilian façade with the latest sporting technology.
The new facility is the result of City Football Group’s model for the construction of high-level sports infrastructures, sharing best practices and the latest innovative technologies from around the world. Like the City Football Academies already built by CFG in Manchester, Melbourne, New York and Montevideo, CFA Palermo is designed to ensure the highest level of performance by players and staff, the application of successful training methodologies, the economic sustainability of the facility and the positive impact on the territory in terms of regeneration of the areas involved, job opportunities for the local community and respect for the environment.
In terms of sustainability, CFA Palermo has preserved the local flora by safeguarding, planting and relocating more than 400 trees and new plants typical of the Mediterranean maquis for a total of 30,000 square meters of green areas. In addition, a ‘social garden’ has been created a few meters from the Club House’s new kitchen: as part of this activity, didactic-social activities are planned in collaboration with local charities, in line with the community projects promoted and supported by CFG across the globe.
CFA Palermo was designed by Studio Mazzarella Architetti according to the CFG guidelines for sports infrastructures. The project management was carried out by T&T Italia. The general contractor was ATI EPS snc and By Multiservizi.