Welcome to Al-Awwal Park

For the 2025 edition, Serie A has confirmed the Final Four format for the Italian Super Cup. The tournament, as was the case in 2024, will take place in Saudi Arabia from January 2 to 6. However, there has been a change in the stadium that will host the event compared to the original plan. Initially, the Kingdom Arena was selected, a futuristic facility opened in January 2024, which hosted the second chapter of the boxing feud between Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury on December 21. In November, however, Serie A confirmed that the venue for the Super Cup will be Al-Awwal Park, the stadium of King Saud University, home to Cristiano Ronaldo's Al Nassr and Stefano Pioli, which had already hosted the Super Cup last season. The stadium has a seating capacity of 26,000 and was opened in 2015, adopting a modern European style. It has a rectangular shape with rounded corners, a unique structure with a roof supported by concrete beams placed at regular intervals along the entire structure. The roof is uniform, except for a bulge over the west stand, where the central stand and VIP area are located.

The only difference compared to European stadiums is related to the local climate. Due to the scarce rainfall, it was decided to create minimal coverage, and indeed not all seats are covered. Inside, the stadium reflects the colors of Al Nassr, with most of the seats painted yellow, except for the central stand, where the seats are blue. The same shade of blue has been used for details such as handrails, exits, and the aforementioned concrete beams supporting the roof. This is where Inter, Milan, Juventus, and Atalanta will compete for the 37th edition of the Italian Super Cup. As mentioned, this is the second time the competition will be held in Saudi Arabia with this format, but unlike last season, there has been no controversy: no one has complained. In 2024, it was Napoli's president, Aurelio De Laurentiis, who took on the role of critic, more for personal reasons than for any ideological stance. On the eve of the tournament, amidst a moment of intense international tension, he threatened not to send the team if the training facilities were not adequate. In the end, Napoli arrived in Saudi Arabia, lost the final to Inter, and after that match, De Laurentiis backtracked, stating "he had witnessed an extraordinary democratization of a country that we thought was closed off." This year, Napoli will not participate in the Super Cup, so there have been no criticisms or controversies.

Instead, controversies have surrounded FIFA's decision to award Saudi Arabia the organization of the 2034 World Cup. The extraordinary democratization referred to by De Laurentiis has not yet been fully realized, and as Pete Pattisson outlined for the Daily Mail, the construction of 12 stadiums with at least 40,000 seats is largely being carried out by immigrants from Bangladesh, working shifts of at least 10 hours for £2 an hour. These workers are also subjected to inhumane conditions, including the fact that they don't receive their pay for the first months, with their wages held hostage by employers to prevent them from fleeing. Furthermore, the workers themselves have reported that they effectively work for free for at least two years to repay the agencies that helped them find employment in Saudi Arabia. On average, four workers die each day, as Pattisson previously reported for The Guardian, and in 2022 alone, there were more than 1,500 deaths among workers involved in building the stadiums for the 2034 World Cup.