2018–19 AC Milan season
Milan 2018–19 football season / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The 2018–19 season was the 120th season in Associazione Calcio Milan's history and their 85th (108th overall) in the top-flight of Italian football. Milan competed in Serie A, the Coppa Italia, the UEFA Europa League and the Supercoppa Italiana.
2018–19 season | ||||
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Chairman | Paolo Scaroni (since 21 July 2018) | |||
Head coach | Gennaro Gattuso | |||
Stadium | San Siro | |||
Serie A | 5th | |||
Coppa Italia | Semi-finals | |||
Supercoppa Italiana | Runners-up | |||
UEFA Europa League | Group stage | |||
Top goalscorer | League: Krzysztof Piątek (9) All: Krzysztof Piątek (11) | |||
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Milan qualified for the 2018–19 UEFA Europa League group stage as the sixth-placed team of the previous season, but were originally banned by UEFA from European competition due to violations of Financial Fair Play regulations for failure to break-even.[1] On 10 July 2018, Li Yonghong failed to keep up with his loan repayment plan, neglecting to deposit a €32 million installment on time in order to keep refinancing the €303 million loan debt owed to Elliott Management Corporation. As a result, ownership of the club was immediately transferred to the American hedge fund.[2][3][4] Milan appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, and the ban was overturned on 20 July 2018.[5][6] Following the shareholders' meeting held on 21 July 2018, all previous directors, including Marco Fassone and Massimiliano Mirabelli, were officially dismissed, with Paolo Scaroni becoming the new chairman of the club, replacing Li Yonghong. In the summer of 2018, Leonardo returned to Milan as a sporting director,[7] while the club's hall of fame player Paolo Maldini was hired for the first time as a sporting strategy and development director.[8] In September 2018, the club hired a new CEO, Ivan Gazidis, who had previously worked with Arsenal for over a decade and began his work with Milan on 1 December 2018.[9]
Once again, the club failed to achieve its primary objective of qualifying for the Champions League, either through winning the Europa League (Milan suffered a group stage elimination), or finishing in the top 4 of the national league competition, i.e. Serie A. On 28 May 2019, following an unsatisfactory result, both Leonardo and Gennaro Gattuso announced their resignations,[10][11] with the latter donating his entire €5,5 million severance package back to the club.[12]
Having taken a week to contemplate his future, on 14 June 2019 Maldini assumed the role of a technical director responsible for the "planning and development of the club's sporting area".[13] On the same day, another club legend Zvonimir Boban was appointed Chief Football Officer, overseeing the club's sporting area.[14]