The game between Inter and AC Milan on Saturday night will have a frosty air surrounding it when it comes to the owners of the two clubs.
La Gazzetta dello Sport this morning (seen below) revisits the stormy relationship between Zhang, who is the president of Inter, and Gerry Cardinale who is the number one at Milan and owner of the RedBird Capital.
Both will be at San Siro for the derby on Saturday evening and will meet again after the two Champions League games in the semi-final of the last edition. It is precisely there that the relationship definitively soured.
The paper states that the two owners avoided and ignored each other in the stands at the San Siro. There was a tradition involving club lunches the day before European games, but it did not take place before the semi-final.
There is bad blood between Zhang and Cardinale, that is clear. And there’s no sign that it’s going in the opposite direction anytime soon: there’s no diplomacy at work in this sense, it would be surprising if the two exchanged even just a greeting on Saturday at the stadium.
In the first major meeting between Cardinale and Zhang at the derby on 3 September 2022, there didn’t seem to be any kind of problem in their relationship as the Inter chief was even hosted in a Rossoneri sky box.
The first problem was born, says La Gazzetta, a few days later. A meeting was planned between the two but it never happened and it seems to have been the stadium issue that caused the rift.
The decision made by Cardinale to build a stadium without the Nerazzurri was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Cardinale met with Milan Mayor Beppe Sala first and then Lombardy President Attilio Fontana but did not inform Zhang.
Haha battle of billionaires’ egos now, Jerry surely is in the entertainment business. Milan vs Inter, USA vs China, cazzo vs stronzo. Are you not entertained?
this guy cant complain during match weeks so he’s here during this down period lmao
cant wait for you to vanish when Milan start winning again.
It means inter do not have enough money to build large stadium of their own. They will ended up with small stadium.
Let them at least have one tower like those in san siro how would they otherwise be able to drag their mopeds into the stadium and throw them out from the stands 😛
Exactly. Or stay at the toilet San Siro. I’m really happy we’re not going to be sharing stadiums anymore.
Cardinale didn’t have any faults & didn’t obligate to inform Inter about Milan’s Future. Why are they push Cardinale to follow their vision ?
Cardinale already very good at his job, he really know what a club needs to reach the top of the world. One of them is have owned stadium with all best facilities and making more incomes.
Cardinale already spent a lot to buy Milan, so he think about long-term investment to have much more profit in long run. And sharing stadium clearly didn’t matched with that vision.
I can see Milan will be peer-to-peer with Real Madrid in 1 decade, if Cardinale continue his work.
– Consistent to challenge UCL.
– After the scudetto every years.
– Keep squad age stable at +/- 25 years old.
– Always invest at young players & Youth Developments (Roma’s Head of Youth Development will arrive at Milanello soon. Roma was so good to make wonderkids in last decade).
– Have own stadium, which is one of the best in the world.
And don’t forget Milan still at the second place at UCL titles, after Real Madrid. We deserved to compete with Real Madrid.
This reads to me like “Cardinale didn’t feel obligated to drag little brother around and keep him looped in on business that didn’t involve him” and Zhang got upset about it. Small fry, expecting favors from the club that actually has its ducks in a row.
old man’s vs. young man’s vision. interesting battle, but so far zhang won more derbies than cardinale
Maximum investment=Maximum profits. Basically, why would Cardinale consider going in with Inter if he can afford a unilateral investment in a stadium project. The genesis of the project is caused by a unilateral decision (Municipality of Milan) to refuse refurbishment of the 2nd Tier of San Siro on account of some flimsy heritage ground. If I was Gerry I’d hate to put my club’s fate in someone else’s hands (even as a partner) again. Esp if they aren’t exactly business savvy as Inter has repeatedly shown with the Hakimi fiasco, Ffp violations and constant inability to close player deals outside of Italy. Chances are their public accounts don’t exude confidence when considering the mammoth project that is a stadium build. TBH I’d dump them as dead weight too as opposed to a situation where they’re unable to carry their financial weight and 3rd party financiers force their way into the stadium co-ownership (Refer to the Yong-Li Elliott debacle). Every owner prefers to retain the initial partner they got into bed with. Inter can’t probably guarantee that. Thus the decision to move forward by himself. IMO he acted in the club’s best Interests and I applaud him for it. Inter owners can bloody well remain as tenants with an unreasonable landlord @ the san siro.🔴⚫️