Images of half-built stadium aiming to be pride of Europe abandoned and decaying

04 June 2023 , 06:27

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The shell of the Nou Mestalla stadium in Valencia (Image: Getty Images)

Images show the decaying shell of a 75,000-capacity football stadium aiming to be one of the best in Europe, but now with vegetation growing on the outside after being abandoned.

LaLiga side Valencia presented plans to build a new ground to replace their Mestalla stadium with plenty of fanfare, but 16 years on it remains only half built.

An eyesore on the edge of the Spanish city, the construction has become an embarrassment with fans demanding to know when it will be completed.

And with work having been delayed for so long, it has begged the question whether the work so far will need to be razed to the ground and it will have to start again from scratch.

Consecutive presidents have come in promising to finish the Nou Mestalla since work ground to a halt during the financial crisis in 2008, with it being expected to be completed in time for the 2009/10 campaign.

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Work was stopped after the club ran out of money (Getty Images)

Former defender Fabio Aurelio told FourFourTwo: “You look from the outside and think the stadium is finished, but it's not. Nobody can really say if that day will ever come.

"So, damn, it's sad because you've lived there and you know the city. The club and the fans deserve a stadium like this.”

The situation has not been helped by the disappointing form of the club on the pitch and the lack of investment.

The brief spell of several months at the helm by Gary Neville in 2016 has typified the lack of consistency that the club has endured and a lack of a clear football strategy. The former Man Utd player appeared out of his depth managing the team in LaLiga and after a run of embarrassing defeats was replaced.

Fans are demanding to know when the stadium will be finished (Getty Images)

Talk of corruption between the club and the local officials over where the money was going to come from for the construction has been rife.

Currently the club is aiming to come to a new deal with the council following elections for a new mayor of the city.

There has been ongoing friction between Meriton Holdings, the Singaporean owners of the club, and the council.

The work done so far may now need to be razed to the ground (Corbis via Getty Images)

The previous mayor Joan Ribo and councillor for urban development Sandra Gomez were demanding that the club abides by its legal agreement to finish the building of the stadium that was signed more than 15 years ago.

New mayor Maria Catala said it is important now to reach an agreement over the stadium.

“We need consensus and firm position on completing the steps because Valencia is above the (political) ideologies and the disputes we may have,” she told as.

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