FIFA Council member Evelina Christillin maintains ‘there are some doubts over the financial solidity of Inter’ and expects them to remain at San Siro rather than build a new stadium.
The Nerazzurri had for several years been planning to construct a new arena in the city with their ‘cousins’ Milan, but the situation has changed over the past few days.
Now Milan seem intent on going it alone and it was reported Inter would also therefore work on their own separate stadium.
“Milan chose a solitary path, Inter say they have projects, but I also heard that Steven Zhang only repaid €10m of the €275m that Oaktree loaned, which needs to be repaid at 12 per cent interest by the end of 2024,” Christillin told RAI Sport.
“I think there are some doubts over the financial solidity of Inter. With that in mind, perhaps the Nerazzurri could stay at San Siro, I think with the full agreement of the council at this stage.
“It is certainly a new development for the two clubs to go their separate ways.”
She was referring to the report from Calcio e Finanza, which noted that a further €10m was paid into the Inter coffers by Suning during the balance sheet ending December 31, 2022.
While Suning received the €275m loan from Oaktree, using Inter as collateral, the club itself has only received a small fraction of that money, now believed to be €80m.
There remain concerns that if Suning are unable to pay back the loan by the end of 2024 at 12 per cent interest, the Serie A club could be taken over by the investment fund, a similar situation to the one that saw Milan effectively repossessed by Elliott Management when Yonghong Li failed to keep up repayments.