Repubblica: Raise revenues to facilitate big signings – Cardinale’s plan for Milan

Wow, that was good, but when will all this happen?

The Rossoneri brand has long been synonymous with power, passion, intelligence, efficiency, artistry, class, and success – in other words, with all those qualities most admired in the beautiful game. It’s ironic that a club that was originally supported by Milan’s urban proletariat should have, by the end of the 20th century, come to be regarded by football cognoscenti as the sport’s aristocrats. However, in the 2010s, as every Milanista knows, this storied institution slid into mediocrity and became in need of rescue and restoration. It’s difficult to maintain sporting superiority without significant economic support. Elliott did a fine job putting AC Milan on a more stable financial footing after they took it over and deserve credit for what they achieved, including winning the Scudetto last season; Redbird – the new owners – will hopefully continue their good work. But erecting a new cathedral on the sacred San Siro site (or, if not there, elsewhere) to entice pilgrims from near and far to flock to Milan to pay homage to the Rossoneri won’t be enough if AC Milan wants to recover its exalted place in football’s heavenly concourse. Nor will attracting bigger and better sponsors alone do the trick. The club must, also, leave Serie A and compete in a new, multi-divisional, merit-based, continent-wide league modelled on existing national competitions – a league which, by virtue of its Pan-European character, will generate substantially greater broadcasting revenues and enable AC Milan and other participating clubs to redress the current severe imbalance in European football between the financial haves (mostly English Premier League clubs) and the financial have nots (which, with the exception of PSG – a parastatal – and Real Madrid, are mostly continental clubs). The formation of such a league, which will capture the imagination of fans and the interest of advertisers everywhere, is the next major step in the evolution of European football, and the powers-that-be on the continent, with Redbird in their vanguard, need to seize the initiative and grab this bull by the horns without any further delay. AC Milan is a business that needs to return value to its shareholders. But it’s also a cultural phenomenon in whose sporting success millions of people are emotionally invested. Its owners must therefore make up their minds: do they want merely to be tinkermen who cautiously and incrementally improve AC Milan’s finances but fail to lead the Rossoneri back to their rightful place at Europe’s top table because they aren’t able to narrow the widening economic gap between it and EPL clubs? Or do they want to be revolutionaries who restructure European football and, by doing so, exponentially – not modestly – augment AC Milan’s financial power, enabling the club to ascend from its current secondary position as an intermediate link in the food chain and become a key protagonist? It would be a tragedy if the Rossoneri’s role in football henceforth should be to serve as a feeder club to the EPL, instead of being a hegemon that dines, primus inter pares, among the European elite and attracts, nurtures, and keeps the best players. Serie A and other national leagues in Europe must shed their provincialism and unite; otherwise, continental clubs will likely forever play second fiddle to the EPL. EPL clubs can be invited to join the new European League, but their involvement, whilst desirable, isn’t essential. As with Brexit, let the EPL go its own way if it wants to. Europe will prevail in any contest with the EPL for broadcasting revenues. Papa Pioli and Don Paolo – experienced and astute practitioners of the game – have assembled the skeleton of what’s potentially a great AC Milan team. While a few of its pieces may be replaceable, other parts, especially the precocious Rafael Leao, are not. AC Milan must keep its best players and strengthen its squad if it wants to become a serious force in Europe. But to do that, it must achieve financial parity with EPL clubs – which it won’t be able to do unless and until it maximizes its earning potential by competing regularly in a European League against other top continental clubs such as Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, and PSG. That’s the sine qua non of any sustained future Rossoneri success. The game in Europe has arrived at a watershed. Is Redbird going to bury its head in the sand and avoid this historic turning point, or will it rise to the occasion and do all the things that it must do to enable AC Milan, which is blessed with unrivalled footballing know-how, to rule the world again?