Furlani discusses exit of Maldini and Massara while pledging to update fans on new strategy

By Oliver Fisher -

CEO Giorgio Furlani has spoken out about the exit of Paolo Maldini and Ricky Massara from their roles at AC Milan, and also looked ahead to what he believes if a bright future.

Yesterday, Tuesday 6 June, Milan communicated that Maldini will no longer be continuing in his role as the technical director of the Rossoneri, with an official announcement expected today saying that Massara will leave his post as sporting director too.

Based on the widespread reports that are circulating, the ownership are not looking at an external hire to fill the void left by the departure of the duo and instead will give more power to Furlani and chief scout Geoffrey Moncada.

Now, Furlani – who was made the CEO last year after Ivan Gazidis left the position – was interviewed by La Gazzetta dello Sport and attempted to reassure Milan fans about the future.

“First of all, I want to thank Paolo and Ricky and express the gratitude of all Milan collaborators for their significant contribution to the club over the years,” he said.

“Paolo was among the greatest players ever and as manager, together with Ricky, he played an important role in achieving our 19th Scudetto. We are sorry to see them go.

“In our club we constantly analyse the most suitable strategies and models to ensure that Milan can continue to progress on and off the pitch, to compete with the leading teams in Europe. The first fundamental element, I always repeat it is, and will remain, football.

“Precisely with this objective in mind, we have decided on an organisational reorganisation which leads to the creation of a working group for the technical/sporting part. Our priority now is to consolidate and reinforce the progress made over the last few years, across all parts of the club.

“Our ambition hasn’t changed, on the contrary it has strengthened: to be competitive at the top of European football. We are on the right track, but there is still a lot of work to do.

“I hope that our wonderful fans can keep their support for the club intact and constant, and I personally hope to be able to interact with our fans soon, so that they can understand our strategy, to continue together to see Milan grow.”

Tags AC Milan Giorgio Furlani

20 Comments

  1. They can keep spouting compliments about maldini and massara to improve their own image but their actions speaks louder than their words of affection.
    I will not forget and and neither will i forgive cardinale.

      1. I think its in between the lines as he is phrasing his words as “the most suitable strategies and models to ensure that Milan can continue to progress on and off the pitch” for me it seems to mean that they want to continue buying cheap players and that they basically wants yes men who wont argue against the ownership. Clearly maldinis public plea for more transfer funds wasnt well recieved and propably was seen as a breach of trust in regard of maldinis loyalty not towards the club but towards the ownership.
        Either way cardinale can spend as much as he wants to but fact is he has lost the trust of a sizeable part of the clubs fans base.

    1. No one cares if you forgive Cardinale so don’t think it has any importance. People on here are delirious and emotional without even knowing what has happened with Maldini. Maldini was a great player and a legend but not a great director – he got lucky to win Serie A because Radu choked. It also seemed like Maldini didn’t want to listen to anyone and you can’t do that when you work for someone.

      1. Neitehr do i care what he or others think of that but if maldini was so bad at his job then its quite funny that he won best manager in serie a last season.
        Cardinale should consider the fan base view as at one point he might have to deal with them in person, glad im not in his shoes.

  2. So there won’t be Sporting/Technical Director, instead we will have Sporting/Technical working group.

    At least that means there won’t be Tare.

  3. I love that kind of hollow statements which makes me think of those of the politicians 😊

    It also makes me think of my mother-in-law who has absolutely nothing to say but feels compelled to talk all the time 😊

    1. you better hope your mother-in-law isnt watching here 😀 but i agree these messages from the mangement are spoken like true politicians.

  4. I dont give a f who runs Milan as long as the team is competitve and they fight for trophies. Maldini, Furlani, the pope.. IDC
    Maldini got sacked, we will see a year from now if it was a good decision or not. Until then, like the jedi say, patience.

  5. So Mr furlani is speaking like that diplomatic style trying to keep things calm and all…Mr politican things better work out because with no investment or leap in quality and with season around corner, fans and media got ample reason to dislodge the management and make life difficult….if God forbid things go downhill this management will sacrifice pioli but this won’t help as they will be viewed a culprit as well….

  6. Better make the transfer Mercato impressive, besides that I don’t see any other way we’re going to compete simply.

  7. So what’s the Way forward because as a fans it’s like we are lost and our hope is all gone with maldini please 🙏 what’s the way forward.

  8. let’s see how Cardinale’s reliance on data analytics to run the club can replace Maldini’s impact on players and business on and off the field. Time will tell. Boban then, now Maldini.
    Is he imitating Bayern sacking Oliver Kahn? Hope someone will advice Cardinale on football matters.

  9. It’s pretty interesting to see how the sacking of Maldini was recieved by fans. At the end of the season when we were struggling with results, he was not very popular. But now most seem to think it’s sad to see him go. But I guess it’s not that wierd to have conglictimg emotions about it. After all his time as a director at Milan brought us back to glory. But this last season brought back memories of how bad things were before. So going on this years results I think it’s fair that they leave and we bring in some people who can better cater to Piolis needs.

    The sad part of it all is how Cardinale seems to have treated Maldini disrespectfully by sacking him so soon after the season ended. Making it seem like everything is Maldinis fault. Pioli definately has some things to improve in his coaching for next season. And the players too.

    But yeah, maybe it’s good to make a quick decision to move on quickly so this mercato can become better than last summers trainwreck.

    1. even though we was reigning champions and only ended up at 4rth place we actually also reached the cl semi finals against all odds and exceeding expecttations and bagging over 100 mil due to that success.
      i think its safe to say that most people would have taken this result as successfull before the season started and when maldini asks for more cash in the mercato he ends up sacked, that is by no means ok as he has created the foundations for our success. Cardinale on the other hand caused the mercato to drag out last year which meant we lost out on some planned moves and still hasnt done squat for the club since his arrival.

  10. How you are going to grow Milan when you are giving a budget from a low level team ? This is Milan and for this year you are competing in 3 competitions how you are going to grow with only 35m . You earn from UCL 135m + whatever money from league and tickets why saving too much money while you really need depth similar to first 11 how? Talking you being Milan fan take this moneyball out of here and do it in USA baseball where is @Poli?

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