January 16 – One month after UEFA rejected a request to waive Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules for AC Milan, saying they remained unconvinced about the club’s new Chinese backers, reports have apparently been submitted by Italy’s finance police over potentially suspicious activities relating to the sale.
Sources quoted in Italy say the Guardia di Finanza have contacted the Milan prosecutor’s office though the city’s chief prosecutor, Francesco Greco, said at the weekend that there are “no penal procedures under way regarding the sale of AC Milan”.
AC Milan is 99% owned by a Luxembourg-based vehicle, Rossoneri Sport Investment Lux, which is controlled by Chinese entrepreneur Li Yonghong. He completed the deal only after a protracted negotiation with former owner Silvio Berlusconi’s holding company as he struggled to raise the €740 million to complete the acquisition. After finally being sold last summer to Yonghong’s investment group, more than €300 million was spent on new players by the seven-time European champions.
Berlusconi, Italy’s four-time prime minister who has stepped down as president of Milan, has denied a report in La Stampa which said prosecutors had opened an investigation into alleged money laundering during the sale.
The alleged report regarding sale contained three indications of suspicious operations, known in Italian by the acronym ‘SOS’, according to sources quoted by Bloomberg and Reuters.
Marina Berlusconi, the politician’s daughter and chairman of Fininvest, said in a statement that the company had “behaved absolutely transparently and correctly” throughout the negotiations for the sale.
Under UEFA regulations, any team that spends more than its generated revenue faces possible sanctions. However teams are able to ask for a waiver to FFP rules under a so-called ‘voluntary agreement’ scheme.
Milan have incurred losses of €255 million in the past three seasons – significantly more than the €30 million allowed – and late last year a Milan delegation reportedly travelled to UEFA headquarters to explain the current business plan.
“There are still uncertainties in relation to the financing of the loans to be paid back in October 2018 and the financial guarantees provided by the main shareholder,” UEFA said in a statement in December.
“AC Milan will continue to be subject to the ongoing monitoring process and the situation will be assessed again in the first months of 2018.”
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