In an interview earlier today, Giorgio Furlani once again reiterated that AC Milan don’t need to sell any of their stars this summer. The Rossoneri CEO also shared his thoughts on the club becoming ‘more American’ in recent years.
Having only signed Alex Jimenez and Alvaro Morata so far, frustration is growing among the Milan fans and there are many questions to be answered. The club’s CEO, Giorgio Furlani, is currently in the US and spoke to Bloomberg about the situation this morning.
In addition to whether Milan need to sell their stars or not to fund the mercato, Furlani admitted that the club has become more American in the last few years. He did, however, make it clear that their decisions are always made on a sporting basis in terms of which players to sign.
On the Americanisation…
“We have definitely become more American. We’re owned by an American firm which is RedBird Capital, a leading investor in sports media and entertainment, and we work very closely with them. We have also become more American on the field, we have two American players.
“Our decisions on whom to field are entirely sporting, so there isn’t a decision on the base what passport the player has but it’s about how good the player is. Obviously, some players just by nature of being American have a certain commercial appeal in the US which is certainly helpful, but we don’t sporting decisions by passport,” he began.
On selling the stars…
“On the sporting side, our ambition is to fight for the title every year and to be competitive in the Champions League. Now, we do this while running a business that is sustainable. Two years ago was the first year in 17 years that AC Milan was profitable and last year was the second year and I don’t think it’s ever happened before.
“What that translates into is we’re not forced to sell players because of capital shortage or cash flow issues. So we don’t need to sell anyone and as a fan [the reporter], I’m telling you, you shouldn’t be worried about that,” he concluded.