You might recall that at the end of last year, the Chinese offered to build a national stadium in Zagreb, which Croatian Football Federation president Davor Šuker said did not exist. Today, however, 10 kilometers from Zagreb, an agreement has been signed between Velika Gorica, the Zagreb County Football Federation and the Chinese company Z-Run Well Ton Industry about a similar project in Velika Gorica, reports Index.hr on April 19, 2019.
“This is the first step towards the realization of a Chinese company’s investment in the sports infrastructure of Velika Gorica,” announced the Office of the Mayor of Velika Gorica.
“Velika Gorica has become a favorite city for investors over the last couple of years, first with our domestic companies, such as the Atlantic Group, and now with foreign capital. We established the first contacts with the official delegation of China a few years ago, and today we discussed concrete projects here. I am pleased to develop this in a positive direction, and that foreign investors recognize our potential for their investments,” said the mayor of Velika Gorica, Dražen Barišić.
Today, after signing the agreement, Barišić revealed that the Chinese are satisfied with Gorica.
“The city has presented the possibilities of investing in sports infrastructure, which includes the stadium with accompanying facilities. The Chinese delegation also visited a potential field that spatially plans to meet the needs of stadium construction, and is the result of today’s signing of the Agreement. In recent years, Velika Gorica has become a city of interest to investors, and I am pleased to see that this interest has expanded beyond our borders and that foreign investors express business intentions.”
It will be a state-of-the-art stadium that will host the world’s biggest football events.
“The infrastructure you have is more than satisfactory because you are connected to the whole of Croatia, the proximity to the airport is also an advantage, and we like the look of Velika Gorica. We see great potential in your city, not just for the construction of stadiums, but for investment in various forms of sports infrastructure and the sports industry,” said Jiang Yu, president of the Beijing-based company.
The new stadium would supposedly be similar to the Astana Arena in the capital of Kazakhstan, which was recently named Nur-Sultan. The agreement on understanding should, by 2021, bring the construction of a football stadium with a capacity of 30 to 35,000 spectators.
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