It’s strange how quickly things can change in football. What makes them all the more strange is how everything transforms when you least expect them to and how big a blow they can deliver.

 

Speaking of crushing blows though, Serie A giants AC Milan were heading towards a watershed moment in their history, with a Chinese takeover likely to happen and cash ready to be pumped into the floundering club. No one, including club President Silvio Berlusconi himself, expected the deal to fall through and give the rossoneri considerable problems off the pitch. If recent reports are to be believed however the proposed deal for Milan’s change in ownership is on the verge of a collapse.

 

Latest reports suggest that Sino-Europe Sports(SES) have paid around €30 million on top of a previous €20 million fee , but look rather ‘incapable’ of paying the full €300 million that the rossoneri originally demanded. The grand total currently stands at €250 million and the deal will probably falter if SES fails to stump up the full asking price. 

 

Reports previously stated that much of SES’s funding could be either coming from East Asia or from the British Virgin Islands, as the Chinese government has clamped down on exportation of capital in the country. The takeover was set to be completed last autumn but the consortium's inability to pay up and suspicions of false documents has left Milan angry and frustrated.

More so, latest reports are suggestive of the fact that SES owner Yonghong Li is set to carry on negotiations on his own and has opted to shut down the SES, which is set to be replaced by Rossoneri Sport Luxemborg. Li is likely to receive financial loans from American firm Elliot Management Corporation, who are willing to hand him around €150-200 million. The rest will be paid with the help of a loan from Chinese asset marketing company Huarong.

 

It wouldn’t be too big a surprise to see problems off the pitch shaping the club’s fortunes on it. Vincenzo Montella’s men are currently seventh in the table, four points adrift of Lazio, who occupy the last Champions League spot. The losses incurred by Fininvest and Silvio Berlusconi during the Global Economic Crisis of 2012, had rendered the club largely stranded and the recent delay in the proposed takeover left them cash-strapped during the January transfer window.

 

Montella’s men have, thus far, done well to stay aloof from the uncertainty surrounding the club, but if the deal does fall through, Milan will struggle to get any of their summer transfer targets and may well have to resort to selling some of their stars to earn revenue. With a lot of their top names doing well, such a situation could spark another vicious cycle similar to the one that started around 2012. The likes of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Thiago Silva and Ronaldinho all leaving the club during that time as Milan attempted to recuperate funds following the losses sustained by Fininvest. This led a decline in the quality of performances on the pitch, as the club missed out on European football for four consecutive seasons and ticket revenues also decreased due to the lack of superstar players at the San Siro.

 

At a time when the club is in the rebuilding phase, not being able to hold onto the likes of Gianluigi Donnarumma, Carlos Bacca, Giacomo Bonaventura, Alessio Romagnoli and Mattia de Sciglio could be detrimental to their ambitions. Montella has succeeded in inducing a certain amount of optimism at the club, but a failure in the process of the takeover could erode all of that in the long run. 

 

All that the Diavolo fans can do is hope and pray that a positive result comes out of whatever’s transpiring at their once-mighty club.


Kaustubh Pandey