UEFA have once again reached out to both AC Milan and Inter regarding their Financial Fair Play situation, but neither club are particularly worried.
La Gazzetta dello Sport reports that this time the ‘knock on the door’ from UEFA is less threatening than in previous years but must still be looked into given the financial difficulties that both clubs have had over the past few years.
Milan had set aside Financial Fair Play for a while because Covid threw the entire world of football into a state of worry while in the last two years Elliott Management have instead continued the virtuous management undertaken from the first day the fund took over.
The mission was clear: to stay on the right tracks so as not to be in a bad way when the FFP comes back into the limelight in the post-Covid period. That is exactly what is happening now, with dozens of clubs being contacted by UEFA over their situations.
The Rossoneri’s balance sheet has recorded drastic improvements, going from €-194m in red in June 2020 to €-96m in 2021, with projections for this year suggesting they could close at around €-40m, which is close to the €-30m that UEFA ask for as a maximum deficit in a three-year period (which later became four years due to Covid).
It all began five years ago for Milan when Berlusconi sold to Li Yonghong and a couple of pharaonic transfer campaigns followed that were not matched by growth on the field and thus it opened a chasm in the balance sheet.
Exclusion from the Europa League was the price that they paid in order to sign a Settlement Agreement, but the feeling is that there have been huge steps forward taken since which UEFA must recognise, especially amid a very challenging time for teams economically.
