Marco Fassone: “It is impossible to satisfy UEFA’s two requests”
Rossoneri CEO Marco Fassone was hosted today by “Radio anch’io Sport” to address many topics regarding the future of AC Milan.
Inevitable asking him if the team is coming out of the crisis after the victory against Bologna yesterday at San Siro: “It’s too early to say. I expect that the month of December will be complicated, because the coach changes never produce effects in the short term. I expect another month of struggle and then in 2018 to find continuity”.
Fassone was asked if it was essential to sack Vincenzo Montella: “You never know if it is fundamental. When you find yourself making such complicated decisions you can do well or bad. We took a decision after having long analyzed it with Mirabelli and with the ownership, because it seemed to us that we were too deflated at that moment to carry on the project. We hope to have made the right choice, we will find out at the end of the season“.
AC Milan’s CEO talks about the problems of the team in the league: “The concern about the delay in the standings is evident. The goal was to arrive in the first four to play Champions League next season. We thought we could get over 70 points at the end of the year, an average that was enough in the past. Probably this year is not enough, the top 4 teams this season are stronger than in recent years“.
The Voluntary Agreement request made to UEFA is another topic of interest: “We are negotiation this voluntary agreement with UEFA to avoid paying penalties on violations made in the past three years compared to the restrictive rules of the Financial Fair Play. We hope that UEFA can listen to our reasons and thus sign the first voluntary agreement in history. There are a couple of requests made by UEFA that are impossible to please, especially if they were binding. One is to complete the debt refinancing before signing the voluntary agreement and the other to offer bank guarantees for the losses foreseen in our plans. No club could support such requests. If the verdict were to be based only on this then it would be a little worrying about the spirit of the voluntary agreement, which was built specifically for changes of ownership and to allow those who buy a club to be able to pay no penalty for what has been done before and invest in the first year to strengthen the team. I am still looking forward to the UEFA verdict“.
Fassone explains what would happen in the case of rejection by UEFA: “If we don’t get the voluntary agreement, we would adhere to the settlement agreement like other Italian clubs. UEFA acknowledges that the rules have not been respected in the previous years and proposes to the club a series of economic-sporting sanctions and restrictions to be respected in the following years. And there are plans, already presented, that you commit to respect and that will lead to further sanctions if they are not respected”.
The Rossoneri’s highest executive also explains that the departure of an important player is a possibility but only under certain conditions: “It does not necessarily mean that these agreements force Milan to sell players. If Milan does not reach the desired turnovers, with tens of millions less in revenues and higher losses, then we will have to review some market strategies. The qualification to Europa League brings about 30 million euros less than the Champions League. We would therefore have around 30 million less for the mercato next year. In that case we either buy one player less or sell one more. Mirabelli will have to evaluate next summer”.