AC Milan’s New Owners Discusses Future Plans With The Financial Times

AC Milan’s new owner Gerry Cardinale spoke to The Financial Times as his investment group RedBird Capital have signed a deal to buy the club from Elliott Management for 1.2 billion euros. As more details emerge of the deal, the direction of the new owners becomes clearer and the fans want to see results.

On Maldini: “It was very important to me that I did that [win over Paolo and convince him of the project]. We ended up spending three and a half hours together . . . it was fantastic.”

On the change in the deal structure: “This enabled us to move on a dime, get a deal done, enable them to continue to participate in a way that they like to participate.”

On the stadium: “A brand of this scale, like AC Milan, should have infrastructure that is indicative of its football prowess and global potential. We’ve had a lot of experience with stadium projects in the US. Milan and Italy deserve a world-class stadium that houses the best of sports and entertainment on a global scale.”

On the league: “There’s a huge opportunity at the macro level with Serie A. There should not be this kind of revenue differential on the media side between Serie A and the English Premier League.”