The Italian heritage authority concluded earlier this year that San Siro has “no cultural interest” and can be demolished. Milan and Inter have been proposing a new stadium for a while, but surely they would rather refurbish than demolish. Apparently not. Although some parts of the ground may be retained as a landmark in a new sports and entertainment district, the stadium itself is likely to be replaced with a brand new 60,000-seat arena. Moving to a state-of-the-art and, crucially, club-owned ground hardly did Juventus any harm, but knocking down San Siro would be like flattening a cathedral.

The stadium takes its name from the San Siro district, which sits three miles north-west of Milan city centre. It opened in 1926 and, in its earliest days, consisted of four separate stands. San Siro hosted three matches at the 1934 World Cup, which Italy won. Originally owned by Milan, the ground was sold to the city in 1935. Ten years later, Inter joined Milan in playing their matches at San Siro, which, by this point, had been redeveloped to consist of one fully enclosed tier.

Further expansion took place in the 1950s with the addition of a second tier, bringing the capacity to over 80,000. Access to the second tier is provided by helical ramps, which wrap around the stadium and give San Siro one of its many distinguishing features. In 1965, the stadium hosted the first of its European Cup finals, a 1-0 victory for Inter against Benfica. Inter remain the last club to have won the European Cup in their own ground.

In 1980, San Siro was officially renamed the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza after the two-time World Cup winner who starred for both Milan and Inter. The same year, the stadium hosted three group matches during Euro 80. The announcement that Italy had been chosen to host the World Cup in 1990 brought the next stage of San Siro’s development. Work on the construction of the stadium’s third tier, its enormous roof, complete with red girders, and 11 cylindrical towers began in 1987 – an excellent YouTube video highlights how this work was carried out.

Due to the adjacent San Siro racecourse, a third tier was not added to the stadium’s east side. The resulting gap between the east side’s second tier and roof affords a spectacular view of the city from the third tier of the west stand. On a sunny day, a glimpse can be caught of a shining Madonnina statue perched atop Milan’s famous Duomo cathedral.

With renovations complete, the perfect setting was in place for Italia 90’s opening ceremony and first match between Argentina and Cameroon. Millions tuned in and fell in love with the spectacular arena. Compared to the traditional British grounds of the time, it looked like a stadium from another planet. The ground hosted five more games at Italia 90, all of which featured eventual champions West Germany.

I first visited during a family holiday in 1998. With no respect for the difficulties of negotiating busy European city roads, my brothers and I always insisted that my dad take long detours if there was a football stadium within a 50-mile radius of our car. The Stadio delle Alpi, which hosted Juventus and Torino at the time, had been ticked off the list a few days earlier and the Philips Stadion in Eindhoven was to follow a week later.

It was a roasting hot Sunday afternoon when we arrived in Milan and I remember standing on the concourse entranced by the towers, ramps and the enormous roof. Incredible. “It looks the same as the last one,” my mum would say when we stopped at a new stadium. On this occasion, it certainly did not. My dad spoke to a staff member outside the ground and suddenly we were going in for a tour. How official this was I don’t know, but I didn’t care. We were going pitchside. I was even more mesmerised by its scale and beauty once inside. The World Cup was in full swing in France and I imagined Ronaldo, then of Inter, treating 80,000 fans to his artistry at this magical arena.

Five years after my first visit, it was time to take in a match for the first time. My brother Gordon was doing an Erasmus study abroad year and had chosen Milan as his base. This decision, of course, was based purely on the academic merits. Within a fortnight of Gordon’s arrival in the city, I was making my first trip to visit him and, on 21 September 2003, I climbed the famous stairwells up to San Siro’s third tier. I’ve always been fascinated by the walk up the stairs and the moment when a new stadium, and the expanse of grass, reveals itself. San Siro did not disappoint.

What did disappoint, however, was the action on the park. Perhaps suffering a hangover after an excellent 3-0 win at Arsenal in the Champions League a few days earlier, Inter struggled to break down a resolute Sampdoria side and the game ended goalless. Luckily for Gordon, the 2003-04 season was one to remember for Milan. A series of stunning displays from Kaká, Andriy Shevchenko, Andrea Pirlo and Clarence Seedorf powered the club to their 17th Scudetto.

It would be naive to suggest that San Siro is a football utopia. It is hardly in pristine condition and many visiting fans have seen its uglier side. The first tier behind the goals used to be the designated section for visiting supporters, leaving them in the firing line of locals who were keen to test their missile-throwing skills. Various objects – and liquids – rained down on guests before the decision was taken to rehouse away supporters in the third tier. Although safer, the view from the higher tier can be significantly hampered by the Perspex screens running across the front.

The ground has hosted two Champions League finals to go with its two European Cup finals. Both of those finals, in 2001 and 2016, ended with penalty shootouts following 1-1 draws. San Siro had the status as something of a lucky charm for the Italy team but that was ruined in November 2017 after the Azzurri failed to overturn a 1-0 first-leg defeat to Sweden in Milan and thus failed to qualify for a World Cup for the first time in 60 years. Despite that dark night against Sweden, Italy have never lost a competitive match at the stadium.

The ground has witnessed some of the greatest goals in Italian football history: George Weah’s full-length run of the pitch and finish (which the Italians call a “coast-to-coast”) against Verona in 1996; Francesco Totti’s exquisite chip for Roma against Inter in 2005; and the spectacular free-kick Faustino Asprilla scored for Parma in March 1993 that ended Milan’s historic 58-match unbeaten run.

San Siro also hosted the final match of Roberto Baggio’s career. Baggio was playing for Brescia against Milan in the final fixture of the 2003-04 season and my brother Gordon was one of the 80,000 who gave the great man one last standing ovation. Milan won the title that season but the final day was all about Baggio. “I’d been told that, owing to the title party, tickets would be in high demand and so I woke at 3am to get to the club shop at 5am to ensure I’d be near the front of the queue when the shop eventually opened at 9am,” remembers Gordon.

“As it transpired, I’d overestimated the enthusiasm from the locals and no one else appeared until around 7am. Still, I had the honour of being the first person in Milan to purchase a public sale ticket to Roberto Baggio’s final game of football. It was a joy to see him strut his stuff in San Siro. He was substituted with five minutes remaining so he could take the adulation of the whole stadium – and share an embrace with the equally talismanic Paolo Maldini as he left the field. It was well worth the 3am rise.”

There may be legitimate financial, structural and logistical arguments for demolishing San Siro, but the proposal seems absurd from a football romantic’s point of view. Such projects often take a long time to get the green light in Italy, so there is a glimmer of hope. Who knows what lies ahead for this magical arena, but it most certainly has “cultural interest”.

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