Whilst AC Milan are still one of the powerhouses of European football, there can be no denying that they have fallen down the ladder in recent years.
Suggesting that Milan are not one of the biggest clubs in Europe now would be silly. They remain perhaps the biggest club in Italy, whilst also having one of the most identifiable logos and teams in world football.
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However, the failures of the 2010s and beyond have certainly meant that they are no longer at the top, like they may have been once upon a time.
Domination at the top
Calcio e Finanza, via MilanNews, posted the findings of the slide on their Instagram, showing the revenues of the top Italian clubs against Real Madrid, who are now seen as the European leaders.
Starting in 2003, Juventus and the Rossoneri both outperformed Real Madrid, with the Bianconeri showing results of €213 million ahead of Milan (€200m) and Los Blancos (€192m). Seven years later, in the 2010s, despite Inter’s treble, they only brought in half of what the Spanish club did, with them closing in on €1 billion in profit.
Now, just from commercial revenues, the heavyweights earn €500m, compared to the €152m earned by Milan – who are the top Italian team in this category.
With €230m in revenue recorded from the ticket office, this is an area where the Milanese clubs can both improve. However, there is still a long way to go until they are close.
Didn’t the Spanish government bail out Real Madrid in the early to mid 00’s or something and paid their debts of something like a billion usd. I seem to remember that so if anything the club should be defunct by now.
Not quite. The Madrid council paid €480 million for Real Madrid’s training ground. That wiped out their debts (about €290 million). Madrid had to pay back €20 million after an EU ruling accused the council of giving state aid.
Today the land is worth considerably more than the €480 million it was sold for.
There was no danger of Real Madrid going under, they would have found a way to pay off their debts and their debts were around the same level of debt the big Italian clubs had at the time.
Oh ok, thanks for elaborating I just thought to recall that they was on the brink of bankruptcy at that point and basically was saved by the state.
They nevertheless seemed to still be favorized both financially and property wise from your info still benefitting greatly.
This is true, but you missed the bigger picture. Marketing and the government. Madrid and Barcelona playing to 70,000+ thousand in fantastic stadiums makes their matches an event. That isn’t the case with Serie A. The Italian government’s failure to either build new stadiums (as the Germans did for the 2006 World Cup) and making it difficult for clubs to build due to red tape, is one of the reasons Italian clubs are behind. The other is the lack of player development. England and France are now the footballing factories of the world, producing a stream of high quality players from academies. That isn’t the case in Italy anymore. In 1990, Italy could have put out 2 teams capable of winning the World Cup. That’s how stacked they were.
You forgot the biggest picture: the Messi and Ronaldo rivalry that began in the mid 00s drove TV revenue to astronomical levels. Usually there is one player who becomes “the best ever” during a given era. In this case you had two at the same time, in the same league playing for two of the biggest rivals ever. TV deal fodder. Meanwhile, at about the same time Serie A has…Calciopoli.
And even before that, players like Zidane, Ronaldo, Beckham and Ronaldinho who are very popular everywhere in the world helped making El Clásico a trend worldwide.
When I was a kid, it was mostly the Italian clubs (Milan, Juventus and for some reason also Inter) that were popular in my country among the older persons. By the mid 2000s, Barcelona and Madrid became hugely popular culminating in the mid 2010s when El Clásico became almost a national event.
All Redbird fault right? They control Milan since 2004 afterall
F_ck off Gerry
Lets talk facts
Real Madrid: 15 Champions League titles.
They were lifting the trophy three years ago.
AC Milan: 7 Champions League titles.
Last one? 2007.
Managed by Carlo Ancelotti — the same man who keeps winning.
And us? Yeah, we scraped a semi-final not long ago — a glimpse of what could have been.
Then Gerry and the gang turned up, pulled the wiring out of the squad, sold the spine, and called it “sustainability.”
Winners build dynasties.
Accountants dismantle them.
Madrid chase trophies.
We chase balance sheets — and then act surprised when the gap keeps growing.
who is ‘they’? Are you also dumb enough to think Redbird is at fault for everything, even when they werent even in control?
lmao
As much as I dislike the current ownership and the fact that they shamelessly sacked Maldini and sold some of our core players AC Milans downfall really started already under Berlusconi as we knew that FFP would be implemented in a couple of years and instead of rejuvenating the squad with actually talented young players we kept stacking the team with overpaid players well beyond their prime and even loaning some older players as well. Had the ownership back then prepared the club better we could easily have had a far better decade than the 2010s turned out to be, maybe even winning more Scudettos than the one we won while still competing in Europe. As much good Berlusconi did for the club his last ten years was not up to standards and he even left the club in a mess with a dubious Chinese owner that almost brought the club to bankruptcy. In 2007 we had 7 CL wins while Real Madrid had 9 so clearly the distance was made in those years while Silvio still was the owner.
Nice post. It’s a shame how things deteriorated.
I’m tired of seeing this club run like it’s just some vehicle, this is a club that has always aspired to be the best.
Finance is an issue but ambition is bigger. We could have a champions League challenging team now if we kept our best
Madrid knew back then ,it takes money to make money.
They invested and won, made big bucks too, then won more
Thanks yeah it really shouldn’t have happened.
At least we are doing well in the league and hopefully can end up winning the Scudetto.
Yeah we could at least have kept the core players while building on that foundation.
No question there.
This was the beginning of the end for Galliano’s magic. I recall around early to mid 00s and our website (still is btw) being so atrocious in terms of marketing. This was the internet beginning to become the new of media. Facebook also had just come on stream as well as a young YouTube. Getting stuff to ship worldwide was an issue, the interconnectivity with players and fans was missing, and it was not keeping pace with modern ways of doing things (and we had the superstars to do it too). Galliani was too old to realize what’s happening around him with regards to modernization. He was a great wheeler and dealer but he failed badly in a marketing aspect. We could have well been the galacticos team too. At that time we were head and shoulders with them, possibly slightly ahead as we had more recent UCL titles to boot. But we failed miserably to capitalize on that momentum. And here we are.