AC Milan

## **Foundation**

AC Milan was founded as *Milan Foot-Ball and Cricket Club* in 1899 by English expatriate Herbert Kilpin. The club claims 16 December of that year as their foundation date, but historical evidence seems to suggest that the club was actually founded a few days earlier, most likely on 13 December. However, with the club's charter being lost, the exact date remains open to debate.

In honour of its English origins, the club has retained the English spelling of the city's name, as opposed to the Italian spelling *Milano*, which it was forced to bear under the fascist regime. Milan won its first Italian championship in 1901, interrupting a three-year hegemony of Genoa, and a further two in succession in 1906 and 1907. The club proved successful in the first decade of its existence, with several important trophies won, including, among others, the *Medaglia del Re* three times, the *Palla Dapples* 23 times and the *FGNI tournament* five times, a competition organized by the Italian Gymnastics Federation but not officially recognized by the Italian Football Federation.
AC Milan celebrating after winning the European Cup Winners' Cup final in 1968
In 1908, Milan experienced a split caused by internal disagreements over the signing of foreign players, which led to the forming of another Milan-based team, F.C. Internazionale Milano. Following these events, Milan did not manage to win a single domestic title until 1950–51, with some exceptions represented by the 1915–16 *Coppa Federale* and the 1917–18 *Coppa Mauro*, two tournaments played during the First World War which, especially the former, received a lot of attention and proved to be highly competitive, despite them not being officially recognized by the Italian federation.

## **Stadiums**

Milan played their first matches at the *Trotter* pitch, located where the Milan Central railway station would later be built. It could not be defined as a stadium, as there were no dressing rooms, no stands and no other facilities. In 1903, Milan moved to the *Acquabella* pitch, where the stands consisted of a section of ground raised for the purpose. Milan played there until 1905. The following year the club moved to the *Porta Monforte* pitch, where they played until 1914. The stadium was furnished with a ticket office and wooden stands. In the following years Milan played at the *Velodromo Sempione* from 1914 to 1920, and at the *Viale Lombardia* stadium from 1920 to 1926. The latter was a modern structure, with a big main stand and which hosted several games of the Italy national football team.

In 1926 Milan moved to the stadium where they still play nowadays: The San Siro. The stadium, officially known as Stadio Giuseppe Meazza after the former player who represented both Milan and Internazionale, has 75,923 seats. The more commonly used name, "San Siro", is the name of the district where it is located. San Siro was privately built by funding from Milan's president at the time, Piero Pirelli. Construction was performed by 120 workers, and took 13+1⁄2 months to complete. The stadium was owned by the club until it was sold to the city in 1935, and since 1947 it has been shared with Internazionale when the other major Milanese club was accepted as joint tenant.

The first game played at the stadium was on 19 September 1926, when Milan lost 6–3 in a friendly match against Internazionale. Milan played its first league game in San Siro on 19 September 1926, losing 1–2 to Sampierdarenese. From an initial capacity of 35,000 spectators, the stadium has undergone several major renovations, most recently in preparation for the 1990 FIFA World Cup when its capacity was set to 85,700, all covered with a polycarbonate roof. In the summer of 2008 its capacity was reduced to 80,018, to meet the new standards set by UEFA.

Based on the English model for stadiums, San Siro is specifically designed for football matches, as opposed to many multi-purpose stadiums used in Serie A. It is therefore renowned in Italy for its fantastic atmosphere during matches, largely thanks to the closeness of the stands to the pitch. The frequent use of flares by supporters contributes to the atmosphere but the practice has occasionally caused problems.

On 19 December 2005, Milan vice-president and executive director Adriano Galliani announced that the club was seriously working towards a relocation. He stated Milan's new stadium will be largely based on the Veltins-Arena – the home of Schalke 04 in Gelsenkirchen – and will follow the standards of football stadiums in the United States, Germany and Spain. As opposed to many other stadiums in Italy, Milan's new stadium would likely be used for football only, having no athletics track. On 11 December 2014, Barbara Berlusconi announced a proposal to build a property stadium of 42,000 seats in Portello, behind the new HQ of the Rossoneri, and the large square "Piazza Gino Valle". The new village with shopping malls and hotel is located near CityLife district and is served by the metro. On 20 September 2015, however, Silvio Berlusconi called an end to his club's plans to build a new stadium in the city. In 2017, new CEO Marco Fassone stated that the club may look at either staying in the San Siro or moving to a new stadium with the club hierarchy emphasising the need to increase average attendance for home games.

## **Popular Culture**

In the movie industry, among the films dedicated to the *Rossoneri* team is Sunday Heroes (1953), by director Mario Camerini, in which the main plot pivots around a fictional football match between the Rossoneri and a club on the brink of relegation. In the film appear, in addition to the coach Lajos Czeizler, many of the Milan players of the time, including Lorenzo Buffon, Carlo Annovazzi and the entire Gre-No-Li trio.

Milan as a fan base and some of their most popular players appeared in several Italian comedy movies. Among them the following are worth mentioning: Eccezzziunale... veramente, Really SSSupercool: Chapter Two (whose cast includes Paolo Maldini, Gennaro Gattuso, Massimo Ambrosini, Dida, Andriy Shevchenko and Alessandro Costacurta) and Tifosi (whose cast includes Franco Baresi).

### Milan TV

On 16 December 1999, on the day of the centenary of the club's foundation, Milan Channel was launched. The subscription-based television channel broadcasts news, events and vintage matches of the club. It is the first Italian thematic channel entirely dedicated to a football team. On 1 July 2016, the channel took on the new name of *Milan TV*, renewing its graphics and logo.

### *Forza Milan!*

In the editorial field, *Forza Milan!* was the official magazine of the club for over half a century. It was founded in 1963 by journalist Gino Sansoni and published by Panini. Issued with a monthly cadence, it covered all events sorrounding Milan, with interviews to its protagonists, special posters, reports of official and friendly matches. Under the direction of Gigi Vesigna it reached a monthly circulation of 130,000 copies. The last issue of the magazine was published in June 2018.

## **Company Information**

On 13 April 2017 Milan became a subsidiary of Rossoneri Sport Investment Luxembourg, which acquired 99.9% shares of AC Milan S.p.A. from Fininvest. Li Yonghong became the new chairman and Marco Fassone was confirmed as CEO. Li Yonghong's investment vehicle was removed as the shareholder of Rossoneri Sport Investment Luxembourg after defaulting to Elliott Management Corporation, which lent a large sum of money to Li to finalise the acquisition. Other partners of Elliott were Arena Investorsand Blue Skye, according to news reports. Elliott nominated a new board of directors for both Rossoneri Sport Investment Luxembourg and Milan, with Paolo Scaroni as the new chairman (Italian: *presidente*) of the board of Milan. The four previous Chinese member of the board and former CEO Marco Fassone were all dismissed.

According to *The Football Money League* published by consultants Deloitte, in the 2005–06 season, Milan was the fifth-highest earning football club in the world with an estimated revenue of €233.7 million.However, it fell to twelfth in 2013–14 season. The club is also ranked as the eighth-wealthiest football club in the world by *Forbes* magazine as of 2014, making it the wealthiest in Italian football, just surpassing ninth-ranked Juventus by a narrow margin.

Emirates is the current main sponsor for Milan's shirt starting from the 2010–11 season and through to the 2019–20 season. Previously, German car manufacturer Opel (owned by General Motors) had sponsored Milan for 12 seasons. For most of those 12 years, "Opel" was displayed on the front of the shirt, but in the 2003–04 and the 2005–06 seasons respectively, "Meriva" and "Zafira" (two cars from the company's range) were displayed.

The current shirts are supplied by Puma. Previously it was supplied by German sportswear manufacturer Adidas, whose deal was scheduled to run until 2023. The deal made Adidas the official manufacturer of all kits, training equipment and replica outfits. However, an early termination of the deal was announced in October 2017, effective on 30 June 2018. Prior to Adidas, the Italian sports company Lotto produced Milan's sportswear.

As a consequence of the aggregate 2.5-year financial result in the reporting periods ending at 31 December 2015, 31 December 2016 and 30 June 2017 (a FFP-adjusted net loss of €146 million, €121 million in excess of the acceptable deviation in the regulation), Milan was initially banned from European competitions due to breach in UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations. However, the European ban was lifted by an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Milan was allowed to achieve the break even condition on or before 30 June 2021.