AC Milan’s £622m sale to Chinese buyers to be finalised by March 3 — the biggest-ever Chinese investment in European club
Former president Silvio Berlusconi had reached agreement in August and deal will see club's 185million debt wiped out
THE £622million sale of AC Milan to Chinese investors will be finalised on March 3.
Former Italy Prime Minister and president of the Rossoneri had agreed to the sale in August, but the buyers needed final approving from Beijing.
The deal will be the biggest-ever Chinese investment in a European club and includes the £185m worth of debt.
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Sino-Europe Sports Investment Management Changxing (SES), backed by Haixa Capital and Yonghong Li will formally take over on March 3, having already £168m in three separate instalments to Berlusconi’s holding company, Fininvest.
And they will pay the outstanding £269m, while also injecting a reported £84m into the team as agreed.
Businessman Berlusconi took over as president of his beloved Milan in 1986 and immediately set about establishing the Rossoneri as the best club on the planet.
He broke the world transfer record by paying £6m to sign Ruud Gullit from PSV Eindhoven a year later and repeated the trick twice in 1992.
First, he signed reigning Ballon d'Or winner, Jean-Pierre Pain from Marseille for £10m and then shocked the world when splashed out a whopping £13m on Gianluigi Lentini.
Milan won back-to-back European Cups in 1989 and 1990 — a feat which has never been repeated since.
And, in the former, produced one of the greatest displays of all-time, to beat Steaua Bucharest 4-0.
They reached the Champions League final in each of the first three seasons of the rebranding.
In 1994, they beat the Barcelona ‘Dream Team’ 4-0, to rival their 1989 performance.
Berlusconi is believed to have invested around £1billion in the club during his three decades in charge and, in 2009, reached as high as 12th in Forbes' list of The World's Most Powerful People.
Yet, his record signing Manuel Rui Costa for what now seems like a snip at £37m in 2001.
Milan added two more Champions League trophies in 2003 and 2007 before a rapid decline which coincided with Berlusconi’s third term as Italy’s Prime Minister.
The club are in disarray, but perhaps this new investment will see them back challenging Europe’s elite on the pitch and off it.