So,what?Our revenue will go down the drain if we don't get to the champions leauge...etc..I don't think we'd be able to compete with big clubs too..

Well Madrid makes twice as us and ends with a net profit of 30MM vs our loss of 60MM. You can not compare in your head the elite of Europe with Milan, heck Bayern made a 1MM profit ... We simply can not afford to buy and our revenues will go down simultaneously if the team does not finish in the top three, I agree.

Officially, season tickets are at an all-time low, and they have be on a downward-trend historically.
Commercially we don't have the biggest names anymore, hence our on-field performance should be an indicator there (subjective really).
TV rights, we share with the rest of Serie A, so that used to be our biggest income driver.


The days of Berlusconi's spending spree has stopped and we have to focus on generating a profit in order to spend, if our wage bill used to be over 90% of our revenues then it is clear we cant afford most of the proven-quality players around Europe.

There needs to be a good balance.

I do understand that if FFP comes in to play then we need to be in accordance with the new rules. But at the same time, selling top players will result is worse performance, which in turn results in bad results and less fans. So to save £5m on wages, we may lose more than that in sales of tickets, merchandise, etc.

If Milan need to take a few steps back to then move forward again, I'm ok with that. For years we've been complaining about getting rid of the old guard, now we've done it and we're still complaining...

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Why are we still talking about the FFP? Isn't it obvious by every club's (but Milan's) behavior in the market that it's just an excuse for the Milan board?

Name one team that is taking the FFP seriously.

Ac Milan (IMG:style_emoticons/default/innocent.gif)

Yeah,that was my point.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/unsure.gif) Everyone? I mean most of the big clubs are on relatively safe territory for the first year regulations, which says losses of not more than 45 million Euros.

Let me guess, you're going to bring up PSG and Manchester City. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) I really don't know about the smaller clubs but then it doesn't matter about them, because they have no Europe to worry about.

SO I'll just give you a heads up:

Man City:

Are at the moment, sitting on 400 million that they made from just selling the stadium naming rights to Etihad. This is not including the far more lucrative (compared to Serie A) TV revenue.

At present their stadium naming rights and their kit sponsorship deals are the among the largest in football history.

PSG:

At the moment I know of nothing active. But they have so much more avenues for revenue compared to Milan. The superstar influx definitely means more jersey sales. They are the only top club in one of the biggest cities of Europe.

I know that recently (probably to circumvent FFP), Al Jazeera TV whose chairman is also chairman of PSG, just decided to purchase telecast rights for the whole of Ligue 1, and I believe a significant amount of the rights will be for PSG games. So that's money in the bank.

Plus that whole stadium just waiting to be sold for renaming rights.

To conclude,

Like it or not, Italian and Spanish football (except the big 2) will be hit hard by the regulations of FFP and have to make emergency changes. Italy has not traditionally run football clubs like sporting companies. No club in Italy is making the kind of immense transfer splashes.

Juventus were the first to have a forced restructuring thanks to calciopoli when they practically sold EVERYONE. They also used the time to get their affairs in order.You remember how they came back with nobody and then finished mid-table for a season and slowly built up.

Inter had to do their restructuring last year, when they sold Eto'o and basically there was no one left. You know where they ended up last season.

This season seems to be Milan's turn. Among all the big clubs of Italy financially we were in the strongest position, so I hope we can pass this season without having to end up with a team doomed to mid-table ignominy. But we'll just have to wait and see.

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You mean only this year's losses count? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/huh.gif) What about the debts of Manchester, Chelsea, Liverpool, RM, Barcelona?

This year's operating losses only..count to next season. I made a huge post about that. If you would come online more often instead of playing Soldier Spy with your Greek friends you would know.

FFP says you can have as much debt as you like provided you can meet the interest payments. And currently most clubs do.

Man Utd made a profit 2011 season despite that huge debt!!! Man City have believe it or not the second largest commercial income in England after Man Utd. Should tell you something.

Hell Pana, you know what is depressing...that Liverpool f@ckin make more money from their jerseys than Milan does. Serie A is THAT popular!! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif)

@Zed.D:

No one else, I meant no one else they could sell. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) Smartass!! They tried to sell Sneijder, they couldn't get the price for him. And you know the mess they had with the revolving door of coaches and all that.

I don't know what Soldier Spy is. I've seen your post, it's still in a tab on my browser waiting to be read... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blush.gif) Do you still love me?

I still don't see how all this necessarily means they care about FFP. I mean, do you have to have FFP to care about the company you are running?

If somewhere down the road FFP bothers Europe's big clubs I can't see why they won't again form a group and threaten UEFA to leave the CL and create their own European league. In which case UEFA will again shut up and take it.

Totally right.

And at this point who cares about FFP when we're going to be banning ourselves from Europe indefinately at the rate we're going...

FFP is boll@cks and an excuse for Galliani and Co.

Silvio just does not want the burden of bankrolling the club anymore. I think saying that would be far more accepted by the fans then trying to feed us BS.

Well you're right about banning from Europe if the team is too bad. But then you're talking about ending up somewhere in the 8th place.

I find the Silvio bankroll argument difficult to accept coz it's been about 26 years he's been bankrolling this club. A 'toy' rarely holds one's interest for a quarter century. I think he accepts that the old model of how he has running the club will no longer work and needs to change. And of course there will be pains involved. Unfortunately in our case, massive pains.

@dst: Your comment about FFP not affecting how you run the company would be true anywhere except in Italy. Typically in Italy, the football clubs have been 'patronised' not 'operated'. Similar to how the kings of old would bankroll musicians to produce operas for them etc. It wasn't an investment with the expectation of return...just an expensive pursuit.

Milan were the same. We've always been making losses if thought of as a company. In fact if we were a 'proper' company we would have run to the ground by now. We make losses, Silvio/Finninvest covers them. For 26 years it's how we were run, it's how we were run when we won everything. Now we need to change and start again.

In a way I'm okay with this. I get to brag about how I love the jersey and not the cups we won. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif) And you who became a fan after watching us get demolished 7-1 know exactly what I'm talking about. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Nah he certainly can't say that. People would just scream at him to sell, it would get worse. Now, some people believe him (and I'm not saying they're wrong and I'm right, this could be true, I just don't see it) and they just hope that it will get better. It would be hell on Earth if people officially knew he wanted to sell and he doesn't.