AC Milan owner Silvio Berlusconi talked to Telelombardia about ongoing negotiations with a Chinese consortium over the sale of a majority share in the club.
“My condition on the club’s sale is remaining president for three more years. Let’s see if those people are serious and open to put on paper that they are willing to invest money on AC Milan every year. We are trying to sell the club because the game has been changing a lot over the last years due to new capitals coming from oil companies which have intensified competition a lot.”
“We have been negotiating for more than one year now. Twelve groups were interested in taking over, but we have refused most of their offers for many different reasons. The companies presented by this American studio seem serious people. If this will be confirmed, I believe we could negotiate, though I’d prefer to sell the club to an Italian businessman.”
“Whoever will arrive won’t be free to do what they want on the transfer market because they’ve asked me to stay. We are trying to speed up to start negotiating players as soon as possible. Mexes, Alex, Boateng and Balotelli will leave AC Milan at the end of the season.
In a previous interview with Porta a Porta, Berlusconi had stated:
“I’ve already declared that I want to sell the club and I think it is a wise decision as long as new owners will invest money to relaunch the club.”
“It is not about money that Finivest has to cash in, what I want is that they are willing to invest money straight away or every year. Money is only coming from oil or China.”
“Every person taking part to negotiations has admitted that the Berlusconi brand is very important, especially in China where I am very popular.”
Written by Lorenzo Bettoni, via Calciomercato.com