Lord Norman Foster: ‘We should be growing the green belt, not eroding it'

Reaching 90 can put those lucky enough to do so into a mellow mood, keen on looking back over their long lives. But not Norman Foster, or Lord Foster of Thames Bank as he has been since 1999, the world's best-known architect and a global 'starchitect' for the past half century, who reached the landmark last Sunday.
'I haven't really had time to think about it. I was in Madrid two weeks ago, New York last week, Rome in between, and now I'm here in London.' All for work, he makes clear, except for the few days in Rome where his daughter Paola is studying (architecture – she is the one among his five children who is following in his footsteps). With his third wife Elena Ochoa Foster, 66, a Spanish art curator, psychologist and TV presenter whom he married in 1996, the family gathered in the Italian capital for a low-key dinner.
Not a big event, then? 'No,' and he chuckles, almost bashfully. 'It just creeps up on you.' And, anyway, his eyes are fixed firmly forward.
So much so that he brooks no talk of slowing down in a working life that saw him found Foster + Partners in 1967 with a handful of colleagues, and build it into an international business, with 2,500 employees in 18 offices spread across 12 countries around the world. Though he is no longer the majority shareholder – that passed in 2021 to a Canadian private investment company, Hennich & Co – he remains in a day-to-day sense, very much at the helm.
To his long list of credits – from the Gherkin and the 'blade of light' Millennium Bridge in the City of London, to the redesigned Reichstag in Berlin following Germany's reunification, the Bilbao Metro in Spain and the Apple Park Campus in California – he is fully occupied adding more: a new global headquarters for JP Morgan in New York; a redevelopment of part of the Prado Gallery in Madrid; the Zayed National Museum in the UAE; and – close to his heart as a Mancunian by birth – a new 100,000-seat Manchester United stadium that will be the largest in the UK.
Is he a football fan? 'No,' he replies, 'but if I am working out in the gym, I tune in to the football. And I saw some incredible matches at Wembley [Stadium – which he designed].
Later this month, Foster is expecting to hear if he will be chosen from a short-list of five to design the new Queen Elizabeth II Memorial, another passion project. But they all are, to judge by his schedule. 'I started work at six this morning. I'll probably finish in time for dinner at 8.30 this evening.'
No compromises with age? 'No, why should I?'
Why indeed? Foster – who cycles and does cross-country skiing if he has any spare time – is looking remarkably well as he sits opposite me at a round table in his firm's London headquarters on the river in Battersea. If I didn't know and he said he was 60, I wouldn't blink. Sporting his trademark black polo neck, it is set off by a well-cut cream suit, brown loafers and vivid yellow socks.
But age isn't about how you look. It's how engaged your brain is and Foster is sharp as a pin, and unafraid of courting controversy in his conversation. As when he turns to the future of the green belt, which is currently on his mind.
'I am a passionate advocate for the green belt. I think it is one of our greatest inventions. And it has become a political football.'
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, in charge of building the 1.5 million new homes Labour promised in its election manifesto, has announced that she will be chipping away at the green belt, picking off what she calls 'grey and ugly areas' within it. Foster is implacably opposed. 'It shouldn't be eroded. If anything it should be growing.'
Fellow Mancunian Rayner's intention to simplify the planning process to remove what are referred to as 'obstacles to growth' impresses him even less. 'We need planning more than ever before. With planning you can create neighbourhoods which are walkable, which are compact. The mantra should be avoiding sprawl like Los Angeles.'
Such compact cities like London, Paris, New York are better places to live, he says. They have a lower carbon footprint – 'I'm not inventing this. It's in the data' – and they extend our lives. Take it from one who clearly knows.
'In a compact city, you walk rather than drive which is healthier so you live longer. One of the killers is loneliness. In a compact neighbourly city, you are less likely to be alienated and alone.'
He is on a roll. 'And the compact city, because it doesn't sprawl, is saving the countryside and protecting bio-diversity.'
Compact cities rely on strong planning controls, but they also usually feature tower blocks. Half of Londoners now believe that there are too many towers on their city's skyline, some of them designed by Foster himself. Others complain that other developments are 'mono-cultural' ghettos for the wealthy.
High-rise towers doesn't inevitably mean bad, he replies, and points to the example of Manhattan in the centre of New York: it has some of the lowest emissions in America, is walkable, has food, public transport and a sense of community.
But he does accept there are particular problems in London. 'It suffers from fragmentation of its different boroughs,' he agrees, 'and the absence of any overriding master planning, where you can get the benefits of change from one quarter of the city to another.' He worries that too many older buildings, those that give a place character and texture, are being torn down.
'The ultimate sustainable building is the one that is recyclable, rather than destroying it and building afresh. That doesn't mean to say that you save everything because it is old. Obviously there are value judgments about the quality of heritage.'
Foster's own heritage is northern and working-class. An only child, he was born in Reddish, on the south side of Manchester, and brought up in a typical redbrick terraced house next to a railway line. He has described how the passing steam trains would rattle his bedroom window.
His father was a labourer, who later managed a pawn shop, and his mother a waitress. He credits them for his seemingly inexhaustible work ethic and regrets that they didn't live long enough to see even one of his buildings completed.
'I inherited my work ethic from them. There is no question.' There is still just a hint of Manchester in his exceptionally soft-spoken voice. 'They were just extraordinarily hard-working. It was never 'poor me, I am working hard'. That was life and, in a way, I've never thought about it. Hard work is normal.'
They worked to keep a roof over their heads. Estimates of Foster's wealth vary, from £15 billion if his remaining stake in his practice is included to a private fortune of £177 million and he is often labelled 'the richest architect in the world'. He has not one but four roofs over his head – in London, Madrid, Switzerland (an eighteenth-century chateau) and a country estate in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, which the previous owner used to rent to the Obamas for their family summer vacations from the White House.
'Work is for many people about survival, you are right. And when I was growing up that was true of my parents, but my mother only took a job waiting in a café once my father had retired and they were – relatively – comfortably off. Nonetheless she felt the need to be working.'
He feels justified therefore in drawing a parallel between her choice – she did it, he suggests, because she was 'gregarious and liked being with people' – and his own to carry on at 90 out of choice, not necessity. 'It is life repeating itself. I choose to do the same thing she did.'
Theirs was clearly a happy and loving home – his parents had a good marriage, he stresses – but he left school at 16 and worked in various roles in local government because he couldn't get a grant to go to university. At 21, though, he found a way himself to get on the architecture course at Manchester University, working variously in a bakery, as a bouncer and driving an ice-cream van to stay afloat. And did he thrive.
In the early 1960s, he went to Yale to do a Masters, where he met Richard Rogers, his great friend, rival and fellow leading light in bringing modernism to British architecture in the 1970s and 1980s. Initially they set up in practice together with their first commission to build a garden house in Cornwall for Rogers' then in-laws. Their fee was £500.
In 1967, they went their own ways. Foster is a leader, as the name he chose for the new firm reflects. 'But it is Foster + Partners.' Yes, and he is the only partner named.
Another member of that first shared practice was Wendy Cheesman, whom Foster married in 1964. They had four sons, two of them adopted. In 1989, Wendy died of cancer. There was a brief second marriage to Sabiha Malik which ended in divorce before he met Elena Ochoa, with whom he has two children, a girl and a boy.
For all his glowing good health today, he has had his own health issues. In 1999 he was diagnosed with bowel cancer. 'They said something like, 'it could have been worse. It could have been a heart attack', and then three years later I had the heart attack.'
He came through and it left its mark on his work. 'Since then I've been personally involved with our Maggie's Centre for those with cancer in Manchester [opened in 2016] and I have to say I wish that when I had cancer that there was a Maggie's to give me perspective.'
By the time of Wendy's death, Foster + Partners was thriving nationally. His first celebrated building was an office for an insurance firm in Ipswich in 1975.
'We humans are social creatures and we do like to come together, so it had a swimming pool, roof gardens. It was about work but it was also about a lifestyle.'
The current trend, especially since Covid, for Work From Home intrigues Foster, but he is adamant that it will not cause the death of the big office block, so much a feature of his portfolio. 'The idea is that the workplace is somewhere you want to go, to be with others, to be social. To claim it is dead is a denial of the very essence of humanity.'
With the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank building that Foster completed in 1986 in what was then still a British colony, his practice signalled its international expansion. It was, his peers have subsequently remarked, ahead of the curve in going global, setting an example that others now routinely follow.
Foster smiles boyishly and laughs when I mention the accolade. 'Well, this isn't unflattering,' he responds grinning, and then – as is his habit – immediately begins detailing the design and building stages. His memory is phenomenal.
'The building was pre-fabbed. Modular construction. That was a first in some ways. Mitsubishi made the bathrooms as container sized elements, packaged right down to towels, and I spent time in Japan engaged in that. And the steel was from the UK. So I suppose it was truly a global project.
But the global tag is also about him being such a name in architecture that his practice can run paying little attention to national borders. 'Our first overseas office happened earlier. It must have been 1970 in Oslo.'
He describes two main projects that resulted in Norway in the years that followed... 'One was in Vestby for Fred Olsen Lines. 'It was in a forest because it was very much about integrating [office] pavilions in nature by recycling natural light, ventilation – all of these. And the other was totally about solar power and recycling.'
The green curve is another area where he was ahead of the field, but nowadays is facing criticism. In 2020, he resigned from a 1000-strong UK climate coalition, Architects Declare, because of criticism of his work on building airports – which all the attendant fossil fuel emissions – from Saudi Arabia to Beijing.
'We cannot wind the clock back. Ours is a mobile society.'
One solution he favours is a bigger role for nuclear power – 'the safest, most ecologically supportive form of energy. Nobody has even died from nuclear waste. And yet people are dying each year from the waste caused by fossil fuels, a lot of them kids.'
But nuclear power is not popular with voters. 'Look at the data,' he comes back, not raising his voice, but his steel evident. 'Take emotion out of it. The figures are published.'
He refers me to an editorial he wrote as a guest editor in November 2024 in a special edition of the architectural magazine Domus. 'I likened the current lemming-like rush for wind turbines, solar panels and electric vehicles in the quest to save the planet to Graham Greene's leper in his novel A Burnt-Out Case. The leper is finally pronounced cured only when his arms and legs have been amputated.'
Strong language, suggesting he is not a fan of wind turbines? 'We [his practice] have been party to revolutionalising wind turbines in the past, reducing the noise and the maintenance and so on, and we have pioneered work with solar panels. But there is a certain point when you have to have a sense of balance and priorities'
And what that balancing tells him is that wind turbines may be 'destroying nature'. Likewise solar cells 'have a 20-year life and we haven't worked out how to recycle them yet. This is a wider conversation.'
He likes details and joined-up thinking and applies that also to electric cars. 'If a large proportion of the electricity at the moment that is generated is generated by fossil fuels, that means when you are squirting electricity into the battery (which is like the fuel tank) of your electric car, that electricity is being produced by a dirty fossil fuel source. It is then a dirty car.'
He is not, he insists, a sceptic. 'I am not campaigning against renewables. Quite the reverse. But there has to be a balance.'
And that search for balance prompts him also to cast a rational eye over other governments' plans in regard to power generation and climate change. 'It doesn't make sense for Germany or Spain to be shutting down nuclear which is tried, tested and safe and clean. Instead they are buying electricity from France that is nuclear powered. It is making decisions on irrational data.'
His interest extends into other contested fields. 'Why,' he asks, 'would you have a Department of Levelling-Up in government, and then the same government cancels the HS2 connection between Birmingham and Manchester [as Rishi Sunak did in October 2023].'
It flies in the face of the reason, he insists. 'If you are really interested in sustainability, you build railways not roads. And we know that connectivity brings benefits, but not in getting from one place to another quickly. If you invest in HS2, you take the pressure off the regional lines [in the north] so you have better connectivity locally.'
People may disagree, but Norman Foster is clearly in no mood to take a back seat in such important national discussions on the grounds of his age. Or to restrict himself to an oversight role at his practice.
Propped up near to where we are sitting are boards laying out the plans Foster + Partners have submitted for the official national memorial to Queen Elizabeth II in and around the Mall. He springs us with the ease of someone 50 years his junior to bring them over to the table to show me.
Is it really possible to capture the spirit of a monarch who reigned for 70 years in a memorial? 'I was very privileged as an Order of Merit [since 1997] to meet Queen Elizabeth. I really thought she was a remarkable individual so I have a very personal interest and passion about a memorial to her. I have tried to find a link between what I saw in the Order of Merit receptions of the informality of Her Majesty, and her formality in so many public occasions'.
His plans draw on John Nash, the Regency architect responsible for Buckingham Palace and St James Park, 'a master planner' who combined formality in the Mall and informality in the park views and landscapes around it. 'The naturalistic garden,' enthuses Foster, 'is a totally British invention and we want to rediscover that.'
The verdict on the five competing schemes is due this month. I wonder aloud if Foster's past brushes with Prince, now King, Charles over architectural matters may have dented his chances. In 2009 he was one of a number of architects who signed a letter criticising Charles for using his 'privileged position' to block a modernist redevelopment of the old Chelsea Barracks in London.
'I think that style has the potential to mislead. Design at its core is not about this or that style. It is much more about values. [The king's] heart is really in the right place, he is concerned about the right values, but perhaps there is from time to time an element of confusion about those values, that if you follow those values it has to be this style or that style and I don't think it is.'
The reality, he adds, is that the two of them share much common ground. 'It may not appear so from the outside, but in many ways we are championing the same virtues and values and objectives.'
He seems, belatedly, at the grand old age of 90, to be embracing the diplomatic arts.
Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

Yahoo

31 minutes ago

• Yahoo

VivoPower Closes First Phase of US$121 Million Private Placement

LONDON, June 20, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- VivoPower International PLC (NASDAQ: VVPR) ('VivoPower' or the 'Company') today announced that it has closed the first phase of the previously announced US$121 million investment round led by His Royal Highness Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki bin Talal Al Saud, and including a consortium of non-U.S. investors pursuant to Regulation S under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933. This first phase is equivalent to gross proceeds of US$60.5 million. The closing was completed within existing authorized share capital parameters. The remaining 50% is expected to close shortly subject to shareholder approval to increase authorized share capital. Proceeds will support VivoPower's Ripple and XRP-focused treasury and decentralized finance solutions strategy and broader transformation initiatives. The private offering was made only to persons other than 'U.S. persons' in compliance with Regulation S under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the 'Securities Act'). Any securities described in this press release have not been registered under the Securities Act and may not be offered or sold in the United States or to U.S. persons (as defined in Regulation S under the Securities Act) except in transactions registered under the Securities Act or exempt from, or not subject to, the registration requirements of the Securities Act and applicable U.S. state securities laws. Any share issuance under Regulation S cannot be sold for at least 40 days post registration and consummation of the transactions contemplated hereby are conditioned upon the sale and purchase agreements (Subscription Agreements) not having been validly terminated in accordance with their terms, which include but are not limited to material adverse change for the Company including in relation to its securities, delisting or suspension of the Company's shares and non-performance of obligations by either the Company or the investors. This press release does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any securities in the United States or any other jurisdiction. About VivoPower VivoPower International PLC (NASDAQ: VVPR) is undergoing a strategic transformation into the world's first XRP-focused digital asset enterprise. The Company's new direction centers on the acquisition, management, and long-term holding of XRP digital assets as part of a diversified digital treasury strategy. Through this shift, VivoPower aims to contribute to the growth and utility of the XRP Ledger (XRPL) by supporting decentralized finance (DeFi) infrastructure and real-world blockchain applications. Originally founded in 2014 and listed on Nasdaq since 2016, VivoPower operates with a global footprint spanning the United Kingdom, Australia, North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. An award-winning global sustainable energy solutions B Corporation, VivoPower has two business units, Tembo and Caret Digital. Tembo is focused on electric solutions for off-road and on-road customized and ruggedized fleet applications as well as ancillary financing, charging, battery and microgrids solutions. Caret Digital is a power-to-x business focused on the highest and best use cases for renewable power, including digital asset mining. Forward-Looking Statements This communication includes certain statements that may constitute 'forward-looking statements' for purposes of the U.S. federal securities laws. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements that refer to projections, forecasts or other characterizations of future events or circumstances, including any underlying assumptions. The words 'anticipate,' 'believe,' 'continue,' 'could,' 'estimate,' 'expect,' 'intends,' 'may,' 'might,' 'plan,' 'possible,' 'potential,' 'predict,' 'project,' 'should,' 'would' and similar expressions may identify forward-looking statements, but the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking. Forward-looking statements may include, for example, statements about the achievement of performance hurdles, or the benefits of the events or transactions described in this communication and the expected returns therefrom. These statements are based on VivoPower's management's current expectations or beliefs and are subject to risk, uncertainty, and changes in circumstances. Actual results may vary materially from those expressed or implied by the statements herein due to changes in economic, business, competitive and/or regulatory factors, and other risks and uncertainties affecting the operation of VivoPower's business. These risks, uncertainties and contingencies include changes in business conditions, fluctuations in customer demand, changes in accounting interpretations, management of rapid growth, intensity of competition from other providers of products and services, changes in general economic conditions, geopolitical events and regulatory changes, and other factors set forth in VivoPower's filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. The information set forth herein should be read in light of such risks. VivoPower is under no obligation to, and expressly disclaims any obligation to, update or alter its forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events, changes in assumptions or otherwise. Contact Shareholder Enquiries media@

Yahoo

an hour ago

• Yahoo

Tech tycoon's superyacht lifted from water off Italy

Salvage experts have hauled UK tech tycoon Mike Lynch's superyacht from the water and plan to take it to a Sicilian port for inspection, 10 months after it sank off the coast of Sicily, killing Lynch, his teenage daughter and five others. Work had resumed at first light on Saturday, with one of the most powerful maritime cranes in Europe used to haul the 56-metre-long Bayesian from beneath the waves. The Bayesian's upper decks appeared badly damaged while the blue hull was encrusted with mud after it had lain on the seabed at a depth of 50 metres. Italian authorities in the nearby port of Termini Imerese will have a chance to inspect the luxury yacht next week as they seek clues into a tragedy that has puzzled maritime experts. The Bayesian was moored off the small port of Porticello, near Palermo, in August last year when it sank during a sudden storm. The yacht was vulnerable to violent winds and was probably knocked over by gusts of more than 117 km/h, an interim United Kingdom report said last month. The salvage team, led by UK company TMC Marine, pumped sea water out of the hull and the vessel was held in an elevated position, surrounded by pollution containment booms, while further checks were carried out. "This was a complex and precise lifting operation to recover Bayesian, and followed a step-by-step program of salvage work," said Marcus Cave, a director of TMC Marine. The plan is for the yacht to be carried to port on Sunday before it is lifted on Monday on to a specially manufactured steel cradle on the quayside. The recovery process has been made easier after the vessel's 72-metre mast was detached using a remote-controlled cutting tool and placed on the seabed on Tuesday. In addition to Lynch, founder of the software company Autonomy, his daughter Hannah, lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda, banker Jonathan Bloomer and his wife Judy, and chef Recaldo Thomas were killed when the yacht sank. Nine other crew members and six guests were rescued.

Forbes

3 hours ago

• Forbes

Inside The New World Of Italian Soccer Tourism

Italian soccer is undergoing a significant transformation. Not only are club owners championing the integration of Italy's natural beauty and culinary culture into the match-day experience, but Serie A is also leading the race to export league games abroad, with plans to send Milan and Como to Australia as early as 2026. But exporting matches to the other side of the world is just the cherry on the cake. Crucially, Calcio must reinvent itself on home soil if it wants to maintain its position among world elites. For far too long, Serie A had remained overly reliant on past glories to preserve its prestige as its European rivals caught up and surpassed them. Milan's players celebrate with trophy after they won the 1994 UEFA Champions League final against FC ... More Barcelona 4-0. (Photo by Christian Liewig/TempSport/Corbis via Getty Images) However, thanks to an infusion of new faces and a change in attitude, the superiority complex that once accelerated Italian soccer's decline has finally given way to the acceptance that change must occur from within. Finally, there seems to be room for fresh ideas. The denial, anger, depression, and bargaining stages appear to be over, and the acceptance that Italy is no longer at the top of world soccer is key for the league to rise back to the top, a sentiment shared by Serie A North America CEO Andy Mitchell. 'What I want to make sure of is that we get ahead of our continental European competitors,' Mitchell told me earlier this year. 'I believe that Serie A should absolutely be the most popular continental European league in the US. And that's really what our goal is.' Apart from the MLS, there is no denying that the Premier League owns the lion's share of viewership in the US. Still, Italian soccer is making inroads through broadcasters like CBS and Paramount Plus for Serie A and Destination Calcio for Serie B. Even Serie C, the third division, is available to stream via FIFA+. In March, Serie A confirmed unprecedented growth in North America, but the increase in interest will take time to convert into income for club owners. In fact, the international rights value of Serie A has declined from $428M per season (2018-2021) to $288M per season for the 2024-2029 cycle, with the league unable to recuperate these losses through domestic broadcasting deals with DAZN and Sky who are collectively paying $50M less per year than they were a decade ago. Problem, reaction, solution With limited money to share between clubs, ownership groups are exploring formulas that may mitigate losses and generate financial sustainability - spending money to make money, if you will. Roma, Milan, Juventus, and Inter have steadily expanded their fan bases abroad through summer world tours. The latter pair is currently competing in the FIFA Club World Cup in cities such as Pasadena and Washington, with Juventus winning over President Donald Trump during a meet-and-greet in the Oval Office. WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 18: U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks as he hosts Juventus FC, an ... More Italian professional soccer team in the Oval Office at the White House on June 18, 2025 in Washington, DC. The U.S. is hosting the FIFA Club World Cup, an international soccer tournament organized by FIFA featuring club teams from around the world. (Photo by) While things are marginally improving in foreign markets, it's in Italy where opportunity knocks for those smart enough to build new revenue streams around international tourism expenditure, a sector that accounts for 13% of the Italian GDP. Tourism in Italy is exploding Italy has maintained its place among the top five most-visited nations in the world, with 64.5 million visitors in 2024, roughly 15 million fewer than the United States (in third place). Europe remains the highest-performing region in the World Economic Forum's Travel & Tourism Development Index (TTDI), an indicator of all factors and policies enabling the sustainable and resilient development of the tourism sector, which in turn contributes to a country's overall development. It's here in Italy's $60B per year travel and tourism sector where one club, in particular, is looking to increase revenue streams independent of the dramas surrounding broadcasting income and match ticket sales. Within a month of establishing themselves in the top half of Serie A in their comeback season, Como has launched SENT Tourism, a tour operator that aims to marry Italian match-day and lifestyle experiences. 'Our goal is to position Como 1907 as the heartbeat of luxury football travel,' said Mirwan Suwarso, President of Como 1907. 'We're not just hosting fans, we're inviting the world to live football through the lens of Como: stylish, soulful, and uniquely Italian.' UNSPECIFIED - AUGUST 01: Aerial view of Como on Lake Como or Lario - Lombardy Region, Italy (Photo ... More) SENT Tourism clientele will gain VIP access to Como matches, player meet-and-greets, private seaplane excursions and cultural tours. Como will also host the first edition of the Como Cup, a tournament also featuring Ajax, Celtic, and Al Ahli, scheduled for July. Accompanying DJ sets and food prepared by Michelin-star chefs and local restaurants will elevate the mini-tournament, along with exhibitions, late-night lounges, and fashion pop-ups. Events like these will attract an affluent international audience seeking more than just the two hours of entertainment that a regular day out at the soccer provides. The Como ownership group clearly aim to fill the luxury sport-tourism hole in the market. With 2026 on the horizon, SENT Tourism is also offering stays in Milan and Cortina for the Winter Olympics, an event that Lega Serie A considers an opportunity to expand its reach to foreign shores. With the Opening Ceremony for the Winter Olympics scheduled to take place at the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza during the Serie A season, and with home team AC Milan needing to find a temporary new home, a proposal has been tabled that could export a first-ever top-flight soccer match abroad as Australian sports promoters look to bring the Rossoneri to Perth. And Como are favourites to join them. MILAN, ITALY - MARCH 15: Christian Pulisic of AC Milan in action during the Serie A match between AC ... More Milan and Como at Stadio Giuseppe Meazza on March 15, 2025 in Milan, Italy. (Photo by Giuseppe Cottini/AC Milan via Getty Images) For a club that competed in Serie D - the Italian fourth division - just six years ago, Como's impact is unmatched when it comes to innovation inside the Italian soccer ecosystem. Barriers are indeed being broken. With an eye on the future, stadium rejuvenation of the Stadio Giuseppe Sinigaglia could be next for the Lariani. As Italy prepares for Euro 2032 co-hosting duties with Turkey, the country must nominate five stadiums and cities by October 2026. And with uncertainty surrounding plans for new stadiums in Rome, Milan, Cagliari and Naples, Como's ambitious plan to rebuild the Sinigaglia in 2028 could prove a masterstroke for the lakeside town. Casa mia, casa tua Foreign investment is the undisputed driving force behind change in Italian soccer. While fans have been crying out for improvements for years, the vast majority of clubs have so far lacked the means to make a significant dent, leaving many teams and stadiums in a state of bankruptcy or disrepair. Over the past decade, though, multiple acquisitions by overseas entities have brought a global mindset with them. When the 2025-26 season begins in August, for the second consecutive year, only nine of the 20 top-flight clubs will be owned by Italian natives—a trend that is most likely to continue growing. As GDP continues to decline in so many sectors, and with the brain drain of educated young Italians between the ages of 25 and 34 seeking greener pastures abroad, this is form of foreign immigration which sparks much less controversy on the peninsula. Indeed, there is money to be made and jobs to be created. Is this the beginning of a new dawn for Italian soccer?