MILAN,
Italy —
AC Milan said Wednesday that investment fund RedBird had completed the acquisition
of the Italian champions from rival US group Elliott Management for 1.2 billion
euros.
اضافة اعلان
Serie A outfit Milan said in their statement
that Major League Baseball giants the New York Yankees will also have a
“minority equity stake” in Milan, who won their first league title in 11 years
last season, through their owners Yankee Global Enterprises.
“We will support our talented players,
coaches, and staff to deliver success on the pitch,” said RedBird’s founder
Gerry Cardinale in the statement.
“We will look to leverage our global sports
and media network, our analytics expertise, our track record in sports stadium
developments and hospitality to deliver one goal — maintaining Milan’s place at
the summit of
European and world football.”
Redbird’s purchase of Milan comes after they
bought a minority stake last year in Fenway Sports Group, the owners of
Liverpool and MLB team Boston Red Sox, and a majority stake in French Ligue 1
club Toulouse in 2020.
A source told AFP that RedBird have acquired
over 99.9 percent of the club’s shares while Elliott will have two places on
the club’s board even though they no longer retain any shares in Milan.
AFP were also told that Elliott’s “minority
financial interest” in Milan announced in June comes in the form of a vendor
loan to help finance the acquisition, while the Yankees will have an
“insignificant” stake in Milan.
Elliott acquired Milan in 2018 when Chinese
businessman Li Yonghong was unable to repay a loan he had taken out when he
bought the club from Silvio Berlusconi’s Fininvest in 2017.
Italy’s former prime minister Berlusconi had
owned the club since 1986 and in the intervening three decades had made Milan a
global football powerhouse, crowned European champions five times between 1989
and 2007.
Milan had been dogged by financial problems
and sub-standard performances on the pitch after winning the league in 2011, a
second-place finish in 2021 announcing their return as a challenger for
trophies.
They declared losses for that season of 96
million euros, down from a deficit of 195 million euros in 2020. Accounts for
last season are yet to be published.
The takeover comes in a crucial period for
Milan, who along with their local rivals Inter are hoping to build a new
stadium on the site of their iconic San Siro home.
However, the project hangs in the balance as
the city of Milan needs to hold a public debate this autumn to convince
residents of the project’s merits.
A source told AFP in July that if the debate
doesn’t go in the two clubs’ favor they will shift the stadium project to a
former industrial site in Sesto San Giovanni, a town just north of Milan.
The current ground is supposed to stay in place until at
least 2026, as it will host the opening ceremony of that year’s
Winter Olympics.
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