There will be an interesting quirk to Thursday night’s fixture between AC Milan and Lille at San Siro, a report has revealed.
It may have been common knowledge to some, but il Giornale (via MilanNews) have pointed out that Milan’s owners Elliott Management Corporation are actually owed a whopping €117million by Lille’s owner Gerard Lopez that must be repaid by next August.
There is however no conflict of interest or anything ludicrous like that, as the paper claims that a month ago the Elliott fund denied any conspiracy.
The background is that Lille fell into a financial crisis a couple of years ago and had a huge debt of €249million, with the American hedge fund Elliott essentially becoming a lifeboat for the Ligue 1 club.
The Singer family lent €117m not to the club directly but to its owner Gerard Lopez to increase capital, and as mentioned it must be repaid in 9 months time.
Could that have a bearing on Milan’s potential pursuit of a player like Boubakary Soumare? Most likely not as it would become an accounting issue, but it is an interesting sub-plot nonetheless.
