I'm thinking it's loans with a personal guarantee by Moratti or something. It gives them low rate of interest, plus keeps Moratti's books in order.

It's been out of his pockets and it's been over a billion since he became president of the club. If you look at the Bloomberg article, it outlines why that's not going to be happening this year.

Well if you're throwing all of that into the mix then it's hardly news, most good teams spend upwards of £75m on wages alone. This is without transfers, wages for the new players, signing bonuses, agent feed, etc. Seems a bit pf a silly thing for Galliani to bring up.

What Galliani said was that Milan had a 10 million debt and that inert had racked up 800 million in the last 5 years. the goal article is poorly translated.

So, the gobbi are actually not playing...well, as badly as we did yesterday. Goal Iaquinta a couple of minutes ago.

Fiorentina are not having a good day, the donkeys are kicking their butts. Pellissier just scored and the Viola have already had to use their 3 subs due to injury - and all 3 guys got injured all by themselves (no challenges or fouls involved).

And perhaps a bit surprisingly, Livorno are leading Catania 2-0.

EDIT: Make it 3-0 for Livorno.

And the gobbi had a goal invalidated for offside - after a long discussion among the referees (good call, it was offside if only just). Then Gillet brought Diego down in the area and Del Piero converted the penalty.

EDIT 2: Sardo scored for the donkeys just now. Nice goal.

Udinese are beating up Siena. It's 4-0 now.

And Marchisio has just been stretchered off for the gobbi, looks like a knee thing.

EDIT 3: Here are the results --

Livorno 3 - 1 Catania
Juventus 3 - 0 Bari
Udinese 4 - 1 Siena
Fiorentina 0 - 2 Chievo
Genoa 1 - 2 Lazio
Napoli 0 - 0 Cagliari
Bologna 2 - 1 Parma

The late game today is Roma-Samp.

Also of note -- Novara, the Serie C side we played in the Coppa this year, has with their draw today gained automatic promotion to Serie B. And Ascoli drew yesterday with Piacenza. The point brings them up to 10th in Serie B.

Fingers crossed for Roma tonight.

Roma are fucking losers, always were and always will be. Another title for merda. GREAT!!

And Sampdoria are only 4 points behind us. This is getting annoying.

Not too long ago, we were one point off the lead and people were boldly claiming that Milan was going to win the Scudetto. How things change in only a few weeks.

Roma = losers
Milan = losers
Inter = winners

The sooner we get over this, the better.

source: transfermarkt



source:wiki/forbes

@ The Championship being in top 5 for revenue. Other countries seriously need to sort out their tv deals.

Interesting that Inter were first in revenue, very surprising.

I think Platini has talked about bringing in some sort of revenue spending for teams, where you can only spend as certain percentage of what you make. But this seems stupid to me, surely it's just going to mean the big clubs are going to get either further ahead as they're allowed to spend more?

I find it extraordinary that even folk in England underestimate the influence of the Championship.

It's by miles the strongest and biggest 'second division' in the world, is easily on a par with plenty of European Premier leagues, and is far stronger than quite a few of them too. The SPL is a good example.

It's easy for it to be making so much money.

I think it's down to the FA and the fans really. The FA do a great job regarding working out tv deals and such. Then I believe it's also in the top 5 or so for attendances which is fantastic. It's difficult because I'm not sure what other countries can do to attract fans to games, the prices are already quite low.. maybe there's just not that big an interest in football elsewhere? I know German games are always packed out, but that's because there's so few professional teams and lots more people.

It's all about the fans. There simply are people in England that do care.

37 mins

Juve 1 goal down to Catania
Sampdoria 1 goal up to Livorno (back on our tail for this week)

juve are out of UCL for next year after their 1-1 draw today

All hail Juve..the new Liverpool. And if they truly want Rafa here, they seem doubly intent on following that path.

Shame.

3 more points and 3rd is secure

I think we have a better chance at getting them vs. Juve than Genoa

Lol , I agree .

I say we can win them both, or maybe draw in Genoa and win against Juventus. If we lose to Genoa we're truly pathetic.







































Oh wait, we already are?

Look at this rubbish articles.
http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2871/specia...r-of-the-season


Somebody give me a good site for football news :S

Italian :

Sorry,Don't speak Italian :S

Try Football Italia, William. It's a step up from goal, and is in english.

So, on Sunday while the Mighty Chickens were beating the crap out of Genoa (3-0), this fish and his person went on a covert mission to Verona. The home of the donkeys is a lovely city -- they've got a functioning Roman era arena where, later on in the summer, there will be live opera performances. It's way cool.

The Bentegodi stadium is the only one I know of that's fully solar powered. They've installed photovoltaic panels on the roof and the stadium takes its power from them.

The people in Verona were really kind, the stadium was nice, and I enjoyed the game. Yes, Napoli won (damn Sorrentino for that mistake on Lavezzi's free kick), but not once did Chievo stop fighting. They played the full 90 and didn't stop until the whistle. All in all, an impressive showing from the donkeys - a little team that isn't intimidated by anyone.

The other thing that I have to give a huge fins up for is the fact that there were so many kids at the stadium. I'd estimate that about 1/4 of the people there were under the age of 16. LOTS of kids.

And sorry Locke, but the kid who had a flying donkey (with wings that moved) on top of his baseball cap wouldn't sell it to me.

In other news, there was a lot of anger about Lazio-inert. Everyone felt that Lazio - except for Muslera and Hitzlsperger - deliberately tanked the game so as to prevent Roma from possibly winning the scudetto. Lots of negative comments about Lazio for that one.

New Inter shirt?

Welcome back Fishdoll - Essie missed you!

I watched Lazio-Inter and I can say that's the impression I got from it. Lazio players (with the exception of a few of them esp Muslera who made a couple of good saves including a one-on-one) just didn't try/care. it was obvious. and some of their fans celebrating Inter's goals didn't help any. hell, it was downright shameful! Lazio were one of my favorite 'small teams' in Serie A but that's no more :|

But bottom line is, Inter are a FAR, FAR superior team and would have won that game one way or the other. Roma can stop bitching about Lazio not helping them and blame themselves for throwing it all away against Samp.


I hope so. it's so ugly

One note for Essie: Lavezzi is a very talented player. Very talented. But he's also a mean-spirited little barstid. So are a lot of the other Napoli players.

Agreed on both points.

I hope we never have a shirt like that. I prefer it when it has about 7 stripes, it looks like a proper Milan top. Any less than that and they look crap, in my opinion.

So now there's apparently going to be a meeting of the FIGC (the Italian FA) abotu the game and Tuttomercatoweb is quoting one of the FIGC boardmembers as saying that there's an 80% chance that Lazio will be penalized -- probably a points penalty.

Coppa final underway. Sneijder lasted 4 whole minutes before he limped off (after a contrast with Burdisso).

Meh, a point deduction probably won't do any good, since they're in the crapper this season anyway. The threat of relegation seems more appropriate.

Miz, a points deduction WOULD see them relegated in all likelihood.

The brawl at the Olimpico di Roma ended.

FT Roma 0-1 inert.

Pretty nasty going for the most part. Lots of unpleasant type fouls, arguments, appeals to the ref (who did a decent enough job all things considered). Fights galore to include a lone fan pitch invasion at the end of the game (props to De Rossi for intercepting the guy before he could attack Cambiasso).

A really ugly 90 minutes of what passed for football.

Totti needs some good bitchslapping. That was just shameful.

Inter won the coppa. They most likely will win the league. If they win the champions league...dear god help us.


We will have officially witnessed the joke of the century win a treble right before our eyes. Oh have the times changed.

To be honest, there's a little part of me that wishes for that happen, because 1) it would hit Milan fans really hard and I wouldn't be surprised if there was a huge riot like it happened with Juventus' fans last month, which as a result might convince the board to make a few quality signings this summer; and 2) it may shake Berlusca's dignity to the point where he'd finally open his wallet.

The second point is less probable of happening though.

Haha. X-Off, what do you think of the theory that Milan is trying to get the finances in order so that they can easily sell the club? (Also, isn't it Marina who won't spend, not Silvio - who is too busy dealing with defections within his own party and squabbles with Bossi?)

you mean to say that the club isn't in debt, wages aren't out of reach etc etc??? So the club looks somewhat decent when a buy is coming along???

Yup. That's a theory I've heard discussed on Saturday at the San Siro. That the club's trying to get the books in order so they can more easily sell.

I read that Berlusconi has hired some accountants to assess the real value of the club, as he intends of selling Milan in about 2 years time. I guess that's why they're trying to balance the accounts and all, so they can attract new buyers like Bluesummers said. It could be.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKwd8LpkIb8

wow...

Totti is an ***hole. I just don't have any respect for him anymore.

I agree that he doesn't have the best attitude, but seems to me he's far better than Zarate or Balotelli in this respect. don't you agree?

I'd agree with that, yes. Meanspiritedness aside, he was entertaining to watch.

There have been rumours that Silvio wants to sell Milan for sometime now but there's also the rumour that we are trying to get the club to be self sufficient for UEFA's financial fair play rules.

And as for the spending both Marina and Silvio are to blame. Silvio can't be seen to be spending millions because of the poor state of the Italian economy while Marina isn't interested in football or Milan. Basically we are screwed.

I'd like to give the Donkeys a special cookie for their game today. They didn't stop fighting, didn't give up, and darn near pulled it off.

Lazio, take note.

Seems to me he did what 95% of Italy has wanted to do for a long time...