AC Milan president Paolo Scaroni provided some important updates regarding the plans for the club moving forward under the new ownership RedBird Capital Partners.
This morning at 10:30 CEST the Milan shareholders’ meeting began Casa Milan headquarters to approve the 2021-22 financial statements and at the end of the aforementioned meeting there was the chance for Scaroni to answer some questions from journalists and the small shareholders.
MilanNews confirm that the loss recorded on the consolidated financial statements for 2021-22 is equal to €-66.5m, which follows the trend of continuous improvement compared to the 2020-21 budget which showed a negative value of €94.6m.
Scaroni was first asked about Gerry Cardinale’s comments in recent days where he expressed his intention to ‘shake’ things up a bit.
“We have a shareholder who, in the interest of Milan, wants to make the most of his team’s skills. There are 7-8-9 sports professionals. I believe that Milan can benefit from this shareholder on all fronts, which brings us a range of skills that we did not have. We are all very optimistic to have a new phase of growth of the brand, of the club and of everything we do. I am confident that we are living now, after the recovery phase.”
A question was raised about the future of CEO Ivan Gazidis given that his contract expires before the end of the year, with Scaroni quizzed on whether the majority shareholder have identified the next CEO and if the rumours about Giorgio Furlani are well founded.
“The professional decisions that Ivan will make depend on him. I thank him for what he has done for Milan and for the relationships we have had. It is easy to be club president when you have someone like Ivan by your side,” Scaroni said.
Scaroni was also asked if Milan will continue to use a low profile when it comes to the various refereeing decisions that have hurt the team or if they will change strategy.
“I will never protest for refereeing because I think it is useless and counterproductive. I think that, in the long run, mistakes will compensate for each other. I think that, in the end, we had games directions that did not favour us and others that did not favour us.
“When Serra did not give our goal against Spezia, our players went to console the referee. They did it spontaneously and I think it is the style that Milan must always have. But this is my thought.”
The topic of the European Super League has reared its head again, and the issue was raised about whether the possibility of participating in it is factored into Milan’s balance sheet.
“For us it is set aside. The ones that are not set aside are the problems. I hope that the various problems that affect European and Italian football will not be set aside. We hope that Uefa will take it upon itself to find solutions to these themes.”
Scaroni was asked if there is a possibility that Milan could build a new stadium on their own and therefore without Inter.
“The public debate is underway, which is a procedure that is rarely applied that is used for projects that are carried out on public land and for investments above 300 million euros. It seems to me that it is progressing quite well, there are some observations that are made by the residents.
“I hope to have an answer by early November and I hope that this process will help to simplify the appeals to the TAR and that the judge will look at them in a more benevolent way. In parallel we will not give up other alternatives.
“San Siro is done with Inter, because they would not give the ground only to us. I do not sense Inter’s financial difficulties on the San Siro issue. An investment of this type is fundamental to create value for all the clubs.
“If we have the authorisation for the San Siro, we will do it with them. We are working on other hypotheses, because we are not satisfied, and we can open up other solutions for them, even to do it ourselves. We are open to other hypotheses.
“Milan have around 400 million fans in the world who, unfortunately, are ageing. We need to feed them with good performances in the Champions League. Matches like yesterday’s, they give me hope for the future.”
Scaroni was asked if the new majority shareholder has given indications on the revenue strategy.
“We will soon renew the contract with Emirates. But the trend is positive, as shown by the new sponsorships.”
The president was also questioned on if the new shareholder is thinking that the club could one day be listed on the stock market, becoming a public company.
“It is not up to us, but I have never heard the shareholder speak of such a thing. Indeed, if it depended on me, I would say no given the unhappy path of Italian companies listed on the stock exchange, with Roma having made a delisting.”
