AC Milan face Slavia Praha in the second leg of their Europa League last 16 tie hoping to make the final eight, uet the central theme of the last 48 hours has been far from matters on the pitch.
As Corriere della Sera (via MilanNews) reports this morning, the investigation carried out – with the search at Casa Milan and acquisition of cell phone and PC data – is something that has fans a bit restless even on a day when the game should be the main focus.
The paper tries to shed further light on the reasons that pushed the Guardia di Finanza to trigger an investigation and above all search the headquarters of the Rossoneri club.
Unlike what was reported yesterday by various parties, it is incorrect to think that the sale price is at the centre of the investigations, i.e. the €1.2bn that RedBird Capital agreed when they bought the club from Elliott Management.
Rather, everything revolves around the ‘proposed next sale of part of the shares to interested Arab investors’. This would be the reason why doubts arose about the real change of ownership from Elliott to RedBird.
Specifically, CorSera underlines how in note number 14305/24 filed by the Guardia di Finanza Currency Police Unit on 1 February 2024 , the search in via Aldo Rossi would be the ‘result of investigative activity as a consequence of the succession of news that RedBird was about to sell part of Milan to investors from the Arab world, with whom, moreover, the first discussions would have already taken place on 19 December 2023’.
Specifically, the ‘AC Milan Investor Presentation’ document ended up in the hands of the Prosecutor’s Office, in which the company presents itself to possible investors in the Arab world, in which it appears that the vendor loan of €560m to date is a guarantee of the fact that Elliott will maintain still the owner.
It must be said that yesterday RedBird came out with a statement, which followed that of the Elliott fund a few hours earlier, in which they confirmed that they are the sole owners of Milan.
“RedBird Fund IV and its subscribers own 99.93% of AC Milan; the remaining 0.07 is in hand to individual Italian shareholders who are long-time supporters of the Club. The idea that RedBird does not own and control AC Milan is absolutely false and is contradicted by all evidence and facts.
“When we took control of the Club after the closing, Elliott provided a loan to RedBird with a three-year maturity and no voting rights. Our goal is to bring Milan back to the top leaders of Serie A and European football – everything else takes time away from achieving this goal.
“There are no ongoing discussions with any investor who could exercise control over the Club. RedBird is the controlling owner of AC Milan and will remain so.”
