Looking Closer At The Relationship Between AC Milan's CEO Ivan Gazidis and Elliot Management's Gordon Singer

AC Milan's management are in flux after Zvonimir Boban came out with scathing comments against club CEO Ivan Gazidis as we reported here. As numerous outlets are speculating today, Gazidis seems to be the obvious winner in the fight with Milan's technical department due to his personal relationship with the Singer family. Gazidis reportedly plays football often with Gordon Singer when they were both based in London. ESPN’s Gabriele Marcotti noted a while back that Gazidis choice to join Milan had to do with his relationship with the Singer family above all. Marcotti noted “Gazidis does have a decades-long relationship with Gordon Singer — the son of Elliott’s founder, Paul Singer — who heads the London office.”

The major stumbling block seems to be the decision of the direction of the club. Boban and Maldini want a mix of youth and experience to return the club to glory as soon as possible. Gazidis on the other hand wants to focus on buying youth players and turning a profit by selling players returning to profitability as soon as possible. FT's Ahmed et al. notes “[Boban and Maldini] have also had to accept Elliott’s edict that AC Milan must avoid ageing stars and acquire young players who have higher transfer resale value.“ The article goes on to quote a club insider “They’ve handed Maldini and Boban a loaded gun, if they try to fire [Maldini], he’s going to . . . say, ‘these owners don’t understand Milan.”

“If they turn it round in a couple of years, no one will care. But in terms of bad press, there’s a huge liability here . . . The risk/reward of owning a club like AC Milan for a company like Elliott seems really bizarre.”