Skip to main content

AC Milan's finances continue to cause concern

As they prepare to face Arsenal on Thursday, AC Milan's finances continue to cause concern. Uefa are far from happy with the financial stability of the Chinese consortium that acquired the club from former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi: Murky finances

Perhaps even more significant, alarm bells are ringing in China. The Chinese authorities do not want their country to suffer any reputational damage from profligate spending overseas.

The South China Morning Post has commented: 'AC Milan are owned by Li Yonghong, whose Rossoneri Sports Holdings took over in April last year in a convoluted deal worth US$860 million. Li has been reported to be bankrupt – which he dismissed as "fake news" in his Chinese New Year message to Milan fans – and Italian newspaper Corriere della Sere has said that the club risks being sold on Chinese e-commerce site Taobao.

That is unlikely to happen even if Li’s finances are as dire as feared. Instead the club will likely go under the control of the US hedge fund Li borrowed from to get the deal over the line. Nevertheless, something is clearly rotten and Li with his fake news and dodgy bank balance is not far away from wearing a "Make Milan Great Again" baseball cap.'

The whole Chinese economy is structured around debt in a way that would not be acceptable in the west. This is not a problem as long as tycoons follow the party line. Party control is being tightened under President Xi Jinping who places a greater emphasis on ideology than his predecessors. He has consolidated his hold on power and looks to be the longest serving Chinese leader since Mao. Frivolous investments in overseas football clubs that attract bad publicity are frowned upon.

A further complication is the political crisis in Italy itself where there are no feasible permutations for a coalition government. Silvio Berlusconi did not revive his political fortunes in the way that he hoped and an unstable minority government might well be the outcome.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

It's no deal say Spurs insiders over Taiwanese takeover

Senior figures at Tottenham Hotspur insisted on Friday that they had not been informed of any deal to sell Daniel Levy’s stake in the club. A business group, Eight Sports Capital — which is said to include a billionaire Taiwanese financier — claimed that it had an agreement in place to buy a 24.99 per cent stake in ENIC, the club’s majority owners, from Levy, who owns 29.88 per cent. The Times has been told Ng Wing Fai and Brooklyn Earick form part of the group, having both been linked previously to potential takeovers of the Premier League club. The Taiwanese businessman, Richard Tsai, is also said to be part of the consortium. He is reportedly worth £7 billion.  Last year Earick, the former DJ and tech entrepreneur, was part of an attempted £4.5 billion takeover, which was “unequivocally rejected” by Spurs.  An ENIC spokesperson said: “We can confirm that neither ENIC nor THFC are aware of any sale by Daniel Levy’s Family Trust of its minority stake in ENIC, THFC’...
Post a Comment
Read more

Reports about Charlton sale exaggerated

Reports have appeared in The Guardian and elsewhere that Charlton has been put up for sale. Richard Cawley is an authoritative local journalist who runs a South London Sport substack site.  He reached out to the club yesterday evening to ask for comment on The Guardian’s article. Early indications from the club have been that nothing has changed since the story about them seeking investment, except that it is now a different company doing it. Charlton have since managed to consolidate their place in the Championship, avoiding an instant return to League One, with their women’s side promoted to the WSL, returning to the top flight for the first time since 2007, although staying there is likely to be costly. It would be counter-intuitive for owners Global Football Partners not to progress the club when looking for investment, that the focus remains on driving it forward, that their spend this summer is in line with long-term planning and will see an increase in wages spent on players...
Post a Comment
Read more

Hull City's 'strange' loan

When football finance guru Kieran Maguire seems flashing lights in a club's loan deal, I become concerned.  He is the leading football finance expert in the UK. Hull City have borrowed £55m against their stadium and training ground yet they should get £30m from the Premier League before long.  What is going on? https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cpwel48y51do
Post a Comment
Read more