CEO: 'In a worst-case scenario AC Milan will be owned by a private equity fund next year'
“The level of interest Milan is paying on the €120m is high of course but not terrible. If you consider the debt that Inter or Roma contracted with Goldman Sachs when they were financing, which was about 6.5%, of course this is higher but it’s not something terrible. For Chinese people, when you see interest on loans in double digits, for them it’s completely normal”, Fassone said.
“In a worst-case scenario, because a lot of fans and shareholders have been asking me this, it means that in October next year, the owners of Milan will be Elliott. This is really the worst case but, just to ensure, the future of the club is not in the fog. No, 99% we will go ahead with Mr Li and we hope our project will be successful. But in the worst case, be relaxed because Elliott are not ‘desperados’ – it is one of the biggest hedge funds in the world that could keep the club or resell it. They would have paid only €300m, which is a very low price, and they can make business, which is their job.”
In order to avoid the above mentioned worst-case scenario, AC Milan need to qualify for the Champions League, which means finishing in top four this season: “They [new AC Milan owners] would like to be consistently part of the Champions League in the coming years. They know that on the sporting side and on the economic side, it changes the life of a club, especially in Italy because the revenues are really impressive”, Fassone said.
“We are lucky because this is the first season that Italy will have four clubs who qualify [for 2018-19] so the target is difficult, but not impossible. It represents the minimum goal that we want to achieve. The club is a giant that’s been sleeping for two or three years, but it’s like a Ferrari that’s been kept in a garage you need to let a Ferrari out on the track to be free.”