GSD Will Not Spend Savers’ Monies on £100M Football Stadium Project

GSD Will Not Spend Savers’ Monies on £100M Football Stadium Project

A GSD Government will not agree to the injection of savers monies in the proposed £100M new Victoria Stadium, commercial and residential complex.

We will therefore withdraw the commitment announced by the GSLP/Libs in November 2022 of spending Savings Bank monies (essentially savers’ monies) in this project.

For years the Government had promised that the construction of a new stadium would be at no cost to taxpayers. It sold the land to GFA in 2017 without the payment by GFA of a premium to develop the land and on the basis that UEFA monies would pay for a new stadium. It is clear from answers given in Parliament that the Government is unsighted on the detail of the proposed project. This is worrying given the size of proposed commitment. It is also unsatisfactory that there are no clear answers why UEFA money is no longer available and there remain big questions as to why a stadium of this size is necessary. Additionally, there are concerns that the needs for development of the footballing community and youth football are not being met in this project.

Leader of the Opposition, Keith Azopardi said: “Our public finances are in crisis. Many people are suffering in a cost of living crisis. It is inappropriate to commit to use savers or public monies to underwrite this project now.

We understand that the proposal for a new football stadium has been around for many years and are sympathetic to the aspirations of the footballing community in this regard but at this difficult juncture it would be rash to commit public or savers monies to this project. Instead, in Government, we would discuss ways forward with the GFA so that we can assist them in finding private sector third party interest following appropriate tendering or expressions of interest processes so that neither public nor savers monies need to be used to fund the construction costs of this stadium development.”