AC Milan’s defeat against Roma on Sunday condemned them to a season without European football, and it will have big ramifications.
As La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) write this morning, two defeats in five days at the same venue – the Stadio Olimpico – served to issue the verdict: Milan will not play any European competition next season.
The club’s appeal, the incoming and outgoing transfer business, the level of sponsors, bonuses and the amount of revenue will suffer: in essence, the accounts. The heaviest loss is undoubtedly that of the Champions League, but Giorgio Furlani said it ‘will not change the club’s strategies’.
Revenues lost
Milan have much less global appeal, from all points of view: for the players and for potential commercial partners. For a comparison, the Rossoneri – second in Serie A last season – were then rewarded by UEFA with almost €60m.
Champions League revenues were divided as follows: a participation bonus of €18.62m, a recognition for the position in the ranking of €7.05m, then a ‘European quota’ of €17.3m and a ‘non-European quota’ equal to €4.16m.
That is just for participating. To that must be added another €10.5m in results bonuses, €1m for the placement and another €1m in play-off bonuses. Calculator in hand, that makes €59.63m in total from the competition.
These numbers do not take into account the takings from the stadium either. The new Champions format brought five European matches to San Siro between September and February, from Liverpool to Feyenoord, with revenues never communicated.
The average between a ‘small’ home league game (€2.5-3m) and a big Champions League night (the 2023 derby worth €10m) leads to considering a stadium fee of around €30m. We are at €90m. With additional bonuses and market pools, we get to €100m.
That nine-figure revenue is one that Milan will not have next season. The total seasonal earnings could have been even higher, in the event of qualification for the round of 16. The new tournament formula has made UEFA even more generous: entering the top 16 in Europe is worth €11m.
That extra money was lost with the dive that led to a second yellow card for Theo Hernandez in the second leg against Feyenoord. One of the many opportunities wasted by the team but an obstacle that could have been avoided if they had beaten Dinamo Zagreb in the last match of the first phase.
The other European competitions
The Champions League makes you rich, but Milan will also have to give up the earnings of the minor European competitions, starting with the Europa League.
The second competition would have brought in at least €13m from the start, to which you can add the four home games in the group (with the related stadium revenue) and with the possibility of advancing in the tournament.
Reaching the final can be worth up to €35m, plus potential European Super Cup bonuses. These figures are far from the number one tournament, but still more than zero.
What about the Conference League? Chelsea, finalists, received over €20m, to be increased in case of success against Real Betis in Poland.
With other words: We gonna have to sell Morata, Theo, Saelesmaekers, Pobega, Colombo, Adli, Okafor, Calabria, Terracciano and send Abraham and Felix back home to make up for part of that 100 mil.
Finding a replacement for Theo will be the hardest. Hopefully Bartesaghi gets more chances and they can get Parisi from Fiorentina resonable cheap to be the first choice.
Selling Musah, Bennacer and Chuckwueze and using that money to get Orsolini and Ricci would be the wet dream.
Getting any player with any international caps would be a hugely over-achievement by our current management. I think we can forget players such as Orsolini & Ricci. Unless they’re French and cost 10M€ each.
Maybe the missing 100M€ should be collected from the management’s salaries? Surely their yearly salaries are at least double of that as they are the most competent and appreciated managers in the whole footballing world. Right?
Exactly, fire the entire management staff considering they are ultimately responsible for putting this awful product on the field. Cheap actions lead to cheap results. Invest and stop being penny pinchers. Get football people to make the football decisions, nevermind these clueless bankers and rats
Complaining when over a quarter of a billion has been spent? Why post when you can’t even get the basics right? The amount of money that’s been spent isn’t the problem, how it’s been spent it.
They didn’t spend a quarter billion outright, they had to sell a number of players. What was the total expenditure or do you not understand that concept? Do you remember Tonali or did you forget? And name me one expensive investment. Sorry, buying a bunch of guys for 20mill isn’t going to cut it as you can see.
Expecting a reply from a kid who argues that Milan cannot spend because they booked only 4 millions of profit? I’d like to see that expertise.
The net spend argument is a crock. Our net spend is on par with Liverpool and Newcastle.
When you resort to lies and are either too lazy or incapable of making a valid criticism,it doesn’t reflect well on the type of man you are.
So net spend is now a lie. That’s another one for uberhulk’s collection of expertises. I’ll put it right next to the “cannot spend cause only 5 millions profit”.
So this breakdown in media for the umpteenth time in these weeks is what? A justification and to soften us fans for upcoming summer mass clear out?
What else is there to write about? Failures, sales and the never-ending SD search.