AC Milan
Italian association football club / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Associazione Calcio Milan (Italian pronunciation: [assotʃatˈtsjoːne ˈkaltʃo ˈmiːlan]), commonly referred to as AC Milan (Italian pronunciation: [a tˌtʃi mˈmiːlan]) or simply Milan,[6] is an Italian professional football club based in Milan, Lombardy. Founded in 1899, the club competes in the Serie A, the top tier of Italian football, and has spent its entire history there with the exception of the 1980–81 and 1982–83 seasons.[7][8]
This article needs additional citations for verification. (October 2023) |
Full name | Associazione Calcio Milan S.p.A.[1] | |||
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Nickname(s) | I Rossoneri (The Red and Blacks) Il Diavolo (The Devil) | |||
Founded | 13 December 1899; 124 years ago (1899-12-13),[2] as Milan Foot-Ball and Cricket Club | |||
Ground | San Siro | |||
Capacity | 75,817 (limited capacity) 80,018 (maximum) | |||
Owner | RedBird Capital Partners (99.93%)[3][4] Private shareholders (0.07%)[5] | |||
Chairman | Paolo Scaroni | |||
Head coach | Stefano Pioli | |||
League | Serie A | |||
2022–23 | Serie A, 4th of 20 | |||
Website | Club website | |||
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Current season |
Domestically, AC Milan has won 19 league titles, making it the second most successful club in the Serie A together with city rivals Inter Milan.[9] The club has also won 5 Coppa Italia titles and 7 Supercoppa Italiana titles.[10] In international competitions, Milan's 18 FIFA and UEFA trophies is the third highest out of any club in the world (joint with Boca Juniors and Independiente),[nb 1] and the most out of any Italian club.[10][11][12][13] Milan has won a total of 20 major international trophies between european and worldwide competitions, including seven European Cup/Champions League titles, a joint record[nb 2] five UEFA Super Cups, two UEFA Cup Winners' Cups, a joint record two Latin Cups, a joint record[nb 3] three Intercontinental Cups and one FIFA Club World Cup, making it the third most successful club in Europe after Real Madrid (32) and Barcelona (22).[10]
In its early history, Milan played its home games in different grounds around the city before moving to its current stadium, the San Siro, in 1926. The stadium, which was built by Milan's second chairman, Piero Pirelli and has been shared with Inter Milan since 1947,[14] is the largest in Italian football, with a total capacity of 75,817.[15] AC Milan has a long-standing rivalry with Inter, with whom they contest the Derby della Madonnina, one of the most followed derbies in football.[16]
The club is one of the wealthiest in Italian and world football.[17] It was a founding member of the now-defunct G-14 group of Europe's leading football clubs as well as its replacement, the European Club Association.[18]
Foundation and early years (1899–1950)
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AC Milan was founded as Milan Foot-Ball and Cricket Club in 1899 by English expatriate Herbert Kilpin.[8] The club claims 16 December of that year as their foundation date,[21] but historical evidence seems to suggest that the club was actually founded a few days earlier, most likely on 13 December.[2] However, with the club's charter being lost, the exact date remains open to debate.[citation needed]
In honour of its English origins, the club has retained the English spelling of the city's name, as opposed to the Italian spelling Milano, which it was forced to bear under the fascist regime.[citation needed] Milan won its first Italian championship in 1901, interrupting a three-year hegemony of Genoa, and a further two in succession in 1906 and 1907.[7] The club proved successful in the first decade of its existence, with several important trophies won, including, among others, the Medaglia del Re three times,[22] the Palla Dapples 23 times[23] and the FGNI tournament five times, a competition organized by the Italian Gymnastics Federation but not officially recognized by the Italian Football Federation.[24]
In 1908, Milan experienced a split caused by internal disagreements over the signing of foreign players, which led to the forming of another Milan-based team, F.C. Internazionale.[25] Following these events, Milan did not manage to win a single domestic title until 1950–51,[10] with some exceptions represented by the 1915–16 Coppa Federale[26] and the 1917–18 Coppa Mauro,[27] two tournaments played during the First World War which, especially the former, received a lot of attention and proved to be highly competitive,[citation needed] despite them not being officially recognized by the Italian federation.[citation needed]
Return to victory and international affirmation (1950–1970)
The 1950s saw the club return to the top of Italian football, headed by the famous[tone] Gre-No-Li Swedish trio Gunnar Gren, Gunnar Nordahl and Nils Liedholm.[citation needed] This was one of the club's most successful periods domestically, with the Scudetto going to Milan in 1951, 1955, 1957 and 1959.[10] This decade witnessed also the first European successes of Milan, with title wins in the 1951 and 1956 Latin Cup.[citation needed] Milan was also the first Italian club to take part in the newly born European Cup in the 1955–56 season, and reached the final two years later, when they were defeated by Real Madrid.[citation needed]
The 1960s began with the debut of Gianni Rivera in 1960:[28] he would remain with the club for the rest of his career, for the following 19 seasons.[citation needed] In 1961, Nereo Rocco was appointed as new coach of the club,[29] which under his leadership won immediately a scudetto in 1961–62, followed, in the next season, by Milan's first European Cup triumph, achieved after beating Benfica in the final.[30][31] This success was repeated in 1969, with a 4–1 win over Ajax in the final, which was followed by the Intercontinental Cup title the same year.[10] During this period Milan also won its ninth scudetto, its first Coppa Italia, with victory over Padova in the 1967 final, and two European Cup Winners' Cups: in 1967–68 and 1972–73.[10]
10th Scudetto and decline (1970–1986)
Domestically, the 1970s were characterized by the pursuit of the 10th Serie A title, which grants the winner the Scudetto star.[citation needed] For three years in a row, in 1971, 1972 and 1973, Milan ended up second in the league, after games with Inter and Juventus.[citation needed] Finally, the achievement was reached in 1979.[citation needed] The same year saw the retirement of Gianni Rivera and the debut of Franco Baresi, at his first full season with the club.[citation needed]
After this success, the team went into a period of decline. The club in 1980 was involved in the Totonero scandal and as punishment was relegated to Serie B for the first time in its history.[32] The scandal was centred around a betting syndicate paying players and officials to fix the outcome of matches.[32] Milan achieved promotion back to Serie A at the first attempt, winning the 1980–81 Serie B title,[10] but were again relegated a year later as the team ended its 1981–82 campaign in third-last place. In 1983, Milan won the Serie B title for the second time in three seasons to return to Serie A,[10] where they achieved a sixth-place finish in 1983–84.
Berlusconi's ownership and international wins (1986–2012)
On 20 February 1986, entrepreneur Silvio Berlusconi (who owned Fininvest and Mediaset) acquired the club and saved it from bankruptcy after investing vast amounts of money,[7] appointing rising manager Arrigo Sacchi at the helm of the Rossoneri and signing Dutch internationals Ruud Gullit, Marco van Basten and Frank Rijkaard.[7] The Dutch trio added an attacking impetus to the team, and complemented the club's Italian internationals Paolo Maldini, Franco Baresi, Alessandro Costacurta and Roberto Donadoni.[citation needed] Under Sacchi, Milan won its first Scudetto in nine years in the 1987–88 season.[citation needed] The following year, the club won its first European Cup in two decades, beating Romanian club Steaua București 4–0 in the final.[citation needed] Milan retained their title with a 1–0 win over Benfica a year later and was the last team to win back-to-back European Cups until Real Madrid's win in 2017.[33] The Milan team of 1988–1990, nicknamed the "Immortals" in the Italian media,[34] has been voted the best club side of all time in a global poll of experts conducted by World Soccer magazine.[35]
After Sacchi left Milan in 1991, he was replaced by the club's former player Fabio Capello, whose team won three consecutive Serie A titles between 1992 and 1994, a spell which included a 58-match unbeaten run in Serie A (which earned the team the label "the Invincibles"),[34][36][37] and back-to-back UEFA Champions League final appearances in 1993, 1994 and 1995.[citation needed] A year after losing 1–0 to Marseille in the 1993 Champions League final, Capello's team reached its peak in one of Milan's most memorable matches of all time,[according to whom?] a famous[tone] 4–0 win over Barcelona in the 1994 Champions League final.[36] Capello's side went on to win the 1995–96 league title before he left to manage Real Madrid in 1996.[36] In 1998–99, after a two-year period of decline, Milan lifted its 16th championship in the club's centenary season.
Milan's next period of success came under another former player, Carlo Ancelotti. After his appointment in November 2001, Ancelotti took Milan to the 2003 Champions League final, where they defeated Juventus on penalties to win the club's sixth European Cup.[38] The team then won the Scudetto in 2003–04, before reaching the 2005 Champions League final, where they were beaten by Liverpool on penalties, despite leading 3–0 at half-time.[38] Two years later, the two teams met again in the 2007 Champions League final, with Milan winning 2–1 to lift the title for a seventh time.[38][39] The team then won its first FIFA Club World Cup in December 2007.[40] In 2009, after becoming Milan's second longest serving manager with 420 matches overseen,[40] Ancelotti left the club to take over as manager at Chelsea.[citation needed]
During this period, the club was involved in the Calciopoli scandal, where five teams were accused of fixing matches by selecting favourable referees.[41] A police inquiry excluded any involvement of Milan managers;[42] the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) unilaterally decided that it had sufficient evidence to charge Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani.[citation needed][clarification needed] As a result, Milan was initially punished with a 15-point deduction and was banned from the 2006–07 UEFA Champions League. An appeal saw that penalty reduced to eight points,[43] which allowed the club to retain its Champions League participation.[citation needed]
Following the aftermath of Calciopoli, local rivals Internazionale dominated Serie A, winning four Scudetti.[citation needed] However, with the help a strong squad boasting[tone] players such as Zlatan Ibrahimović, Robinho and Alexandre Pato joining many of the veterans of the club's mid-decade European successes, Milan recaptured the Scudetto in the 2010–11 Serie A season, their first since the 2003–04 season and 18th overall.[44][45]
Changes in ownership and decline (2012–2019)
After their 18th Scudetto, the club declined in performance. Milan failed to qualify to European competitions for a few years, and the only trophy won was the 2016 Supercoppa Italiana, achieved under Vincenzo Montella's coaching after defeating Juventus in the penalty shoot-out.[citation needed]
On 5 August 2016, a new preliminary agreement was signed with the Chinese investment management company Sino-Europe Sports Investment Management Changxing Co., to which Fininvest sold a 99.93% stake of Milan for about €520 million, plus the refurbishment of the club financial debt of €220 million.[46] On 13 April 2017, the deal was completed and Rossoneri Sport Investment Lux became the new direct parent company of the club.[47] In order to finalise the deal, American hedge fund Elliott Management Corporation provided Li with a loan of €303 million (€180 million to complete the payment to Fininvest and €123 million issued directly to the club).[48][49] On 10 July 2018, Li failed to[tone] keep up with his loan repayment plan, neglecting to deposit a €32 million instalment on time in order to refinance the €303 million loan debt owed to the American hedge fund. As a result, In July 2018, chairman Li Yonghong's investment vehicle Rossoneri Champion Inv. Lux. was removed as the shareholder of Rossoneri Sport Inv. Lux., the direct parent company of the club, making the investment vehicle majority controlled by Elliott Management Corporation the sole shareholder of Rossoneri Sport Inv. Lux.[50][51][52][53]
On 27 November 2017, Montella was sacked due to poor results and replaced by former player Gennaro Gattuso.[54] Milan qualified for the 2018–19 UEFA Europa League group stage after finishing 6th in the 2017–18 Serie A season, but were banned by UEFA from European competition due to violations of Financial Fair Play regulations for failure to break-even.[55] Milan appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and the decision was overturned on 20 July 2018.[56][57][58]
In Gattuso's first full season in charge, Milan exceeded expectations[according to whom?] and spent much of the campaign in the top 4. Despite winning their final 4 games, Milan missed out on the Champions League by one point.[59] After Milan's failure to qualify for the Champions League, Gattuso resigned as manager.[60] On 19 June 2019, Milan hired former Sampdoria manager Marco Giampaolo on a 2-year contract. On 28 June 2019, Milan was excluded from the 2019–20 UEFA Europa League for violating Financial Fair Play regulations for the years 2014–2017 and 2015–2018.[61]
Recent history (2019–present)
After four months in charge, Giampaolo was sacked after losing four of his first seven games, which was exacerbated by poor performances and a lack of supporter confidence. Stefano Pioli was hired as his replacement.[62] After the restart of the Serie A campaign due to the COVID-19 outbreak, Milan went on a ten-match unbeaten streak, winning seven in the process, including matches against Juventus, Lazio and Roma. This streak led to Milan abandoning their plans to hire Ralf Rangnick as their new manager and sporting director, and instead extended Pioli's contract for a further two years.[63] Following a stellar[tone] start in the 2020–21 Serie A, which was a continuation of the second half of the previous season, Milan under Pioli in his first full season were led[by whom?] to a second-place finish in the league, which was the highest finish for the team since the 2011–12 Serie A.[citation needed] This result allowed Milan to qualify for the 2021–22 UEFA Champions League for the following season, which would become their first appearance in the UEFA Champions League in seven years, since their last appearance in the 2013–14 UEFA Champions League.
Milan secured their nineteenth Italian championship title in the last round of the 2021–22 season, with a club-record tally of 86 points.[citation needed] It was their first league title since the 2010–11 season.[citation needed] In the Serie A Awards, Rafael Leão was named as the league's most valuable player, Mike Maignan as the best goalkeeper, and Pioli as coach of the season.[64][65][66] On 1 June 2022, RedBird Capital Partners agreed to acquire AC Milan at $1.3 billion; meanwhile, Elliott Management Corporation would keep a minority stake.[67]
Red and black are the colours which have represented the club throughout its entire history.[citation needed] They were chosen by its founder Herbert Kilpin to represent the players' fiery ardour (red) and their opponents' fear of challenging the team (black).[citation needed] Rossoneri, the team's widely used nickname, literally means "the red & blacks" in Italian, in reference to the colours of the stripes on its jersey.[68]
Another nickname derived from the club's colours is the Devil.[citation needed] An image of a red devil was used as Milan's logo at one point with a Golden Star for Sport Excellence located next to it.[69] As is customary in Italian football,[citation needed] the star above the logo was awarded to the club after winning 10 league titles, in 1979.[citation needed] The official Milan logos have always displayed the Flag of Milan, which was originally the flag of Saint Ambrose,[69] next to red and black stripes.[citation needed] The modern badge used today[clarification needed] represents the club colours and the flag of the Comune di Milano, with the acronym ACM at the top and the foundation year (1899) at the bottom.[69] For what concerns the badge worn on match kits, from the origins to the mid-1940s it was simply the flag of Milan. For many decades no club logo was displayed, with the exception of the devil's logo in the early 1980s. The club badge made its definitive appearance on the match strips in the 1995–96, in a form that remained basically unchanged until present days.
Since its foundation, the AC Milan home kit consisted of a red and black striped shirt, combined with white shorts and black socks; over the course of the decades, only cyclical changes dictated by the fashions of the time affected this pattern, which remained almost unchanged up to present days.[citation needed] In the first decade of the 20th century, the Rossoneri's first kit was a simple silk shirt characterized by thin stripes, with the badge of the city of Milan sewn at heart level. From the 1910s, the stripes were enlarged following a pattern that would remain unchanged until the late 1950s. The 1960s marked a return to the origins, with the use of thin stripes.[citation needed] This style would last until the 1985–86 season, with a small intermezzo[clarification needed] from 1980 to 1982, when the stripes changed to a middle size again.[citation needed] A notable innovation occurred in this period. Between the 1979–80 and 1980–81 seasons, the AC Milan shirt achieved an important record by adding the surnames of the players above the number for the first time in Italian football.[70]
From the 1986–87 season, under the impulse of the new club owner Silvio Berlusconi, the stripes were brought back to a middle size, and the colour of the socks was changed to white, taking the same colour of the shorts.[citation needed] In such a way, Berlusconi aimed at giving the players a more elegant look, as well as making the kit more distinguishably red and black when watched on the television compared to the thin striped kit, which, at a distance and on the television, could be mistaken for a full red or brown shirt.[71] This style continued until 1998. Starting from the 1998–99 season, the kits started to be modified on a yearly basis in their design.
Milan's away kit has always been completely white, sometimes adorned with various types of decorations, the most common of which are one vertical or horizontal red and black stripe.[72] The white away kit is considered by both the fans and the club to be a lucky strip in Champions League finals, due to the fact that Milan has won six finals out of eight in an all white strip (losing only to Ajax in 1995 and Liverpool in 2005), and only won one out of three in the home strip.[citation needed] The third strip, which is rarely used, changes yearly, being mostly black with red trimmings.
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- First logo of the "Milan Foot-Ball and Cricket Club", used from 1899 to 1916
- Milan logo used between 1936 and 1945
- Milan logo used between 1946 and 1979, with few variations over the years
- Milan logo used between 1986 and 1998
- Milan logo used since 1998
Kit suppliers and shirt sponsors
Period | Kit manufacturer | Shirt sponsor | ||||||||||||||||
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Brand | Company | Back | Sleeve | |||||||||||||||
1978–80 | Adidas | None | None | |||||||||||||||
1980–82 | Linea Milan | Pooh Jeans | Italiana Manifatture | |||||||||||||||
1982–83 | Ennerre | Hitachi | Hitachi Europe | |||||||||||||||
1983–84 | Olio Cuore | |||||||||||||||||
1984–85 | Rolly Go | Oscar Mondadori | Arnoldo Mondadori Editore | |||||||||||||||
1985–86 | Gianni Rivera | Fotorex U-Bix | Olivetti | |||||||||||||||
1986–87 | Kappa | |||||||||||||||||
1987–90 | Mediolanum | |||||||||||||||||
1990–92 | Adidas | |||||||||||||||||
1992–93 | Motta | |||||||||||||||||
1993–94 | Lotto | |||||||||||||||||
1994–98 | Opel | General Motors | ||||||||||||||||
1998–06 | Adidas | |||||||||||||||||
2006–10 | Bwin | |||||||||||||||||
2010–18 | Emirates | The Emirates Group | ||||||||||||||||
2018–21 | Puma | |||||||||||||||||
2021–23 | Wefox | BitMEX | ||||||||||||||||
2023– | MSC Cruises | |||||||||||||||||
Kit deals
Kit supplier | Period | Contract announcement |
Contract duration |
Value | Notes |
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Adidas | 1998–2018[clarification needed] | 9 October 2013[additional citation(s) needed] | 2013–2018 | €20 million per year[74] | Original contract duration: 2013–2023 Contract prematurely terminated by mutual consent at the end of the 2017–18 season.[75] |
Puma | 2018–present | 12 February 2018 | 2018–present | Between €10 million and 15 million per year[76] |
Anthem and mascot
"AC Milan Anthem – Milan Milan" debuted in 1988 and was composed by Tony Renis and Massimo Guantini.[77][78]
The official mascot, designed by Warner Bros., is "Milanello", a red devil with the AC Milan kit and a ball.
Milan played their first matches at the Trotter pitch, located where the Milan Central railway station would later be built.[citation needed] It could not be defined as a stadium,[according to whom?] as there were no dressing rooms, no stands and no other facilities.[citation needed] In 1903, Milan moved to the Acquabella pitch, where the stands consisted of a section of ground raised for the purpose. Milan played there until 1905. The following year, the club moved to the Porta Monforte pitch, where they played until 1914. The stadium was furnished with a ticket office and wooden stands. In the following years, Milan played at the Velodromo Sempione (from 1914 to 1920), and at the Viale Lombardia stadium (from 1920 to 1926). The latter was a modern structure, with a big main stand and which hosted several games of the Italy national football team.[79]
In 1926, Milan moved to the stadium where they still play nowadays:[tone] The San Siro. The stadium,[15] - officially known as Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, after the former player who represented both Milan and Internazionale - has 75,923 seats.[citation needed] The more commonly used name, "San Siro", is the name of the district where it is located. San Siro was privately built by funding from Milan's president at the time, Piero Pirelli.[citation needed] Construction was performed by 120 workers, and took 13+1⁄2 months to complete.[citation needed] The stadium was owned by the club until it was sold to the city in 1935, and has been shared with Internazionale since 1947, when the other major Milanese club was accepted as joint tenant.
The first game played at the stadium was on 19 September 1926, when Milan lost 6–3 in a friendly match against Internazionale.[citation needed] Milan played its first league game in San Siro on 19 September 1926, losing 1–2 to Sampierdarenese.[citation needed] From an initial capacity of 35,000 spectators, the stadium has undergone several major renovations, most recently[contradictory] in preparation for the 1990 FIFA World Cup, when its capacity was set to 85,700, all covered with a polycarbonate roof.[citation needed] In the summer of 2008, its capacity was reduced to 80,018, to meet the new standards[clarification needed] set by UEFA.
Based on the English model for stadiums, San Siro is specifically designed for football matches, as opposed to many multi-purpose stadiums used in Serie A.[citation needed] It is therefore renowned in Italy[according to whom?] for its fantastic[tone] atmosphere during matches, largely thanks to the closeness[according to whom?] of its stands to the pitch. The frequent[quantify] use of flares by supporters contributes to the atmosphere,[according to whom?] but the practice has occasionally caused problems.[clarification needed]
On 19 December 2005, Milan vice-president and executive director Adriano Galliani announced that the club was seriously working towards a relocation.[citation needed] He stated Milan's new stadium would be largely based on the Veltins-Arena – the home of Schalke 04 in Gelsenkirchen – and would follow the standards of football stadiums in the United States, Germany and Spain.[citation needed] As opposed to many other stadiums in Italy, Milan's new stadium would likely[according to whom?] be used for football only, having no athletics track.[citation needed] On 11 December 2014, Barbara Berlusconi announced a proposal to build a property stadium of 42,000 seats in Portello, behind the new HQ of the Rossoneri, and the large square "Piazza Gino Valle". The new village with shopping malls and hotel is located near CityLife district and is served by the metro.[80] On 20 September 2015, however, Silvio Berlusconi called an end to his club's plans to build a new stadium in the city.[81] In 2017, new CEO Marco Fassone stated that the club may look at either staying in the San Siro or moving to a new stadium, with the club hierarchy emphasising the need to increase average attendance for home games.[82]
On 27 September 2023, chairman Paolo Scaroni announced the club had filed a proposal to build a new 70,000-seater stadium, alongside the club headquarters and museum in the comune of San Donato Milanese, a suburb south of Milan.[83]
Milan is one of the most supported football clubs in Italy, according to research conducted by Italian newspaper La Repubblica.[84] Historically, Milan was supported by the city's working class, which granted them the nickname of casciavid (which in Milanese dialect means "screwdrivers"), used until the 1960s.[85] On the other hand, crosstown rivals Inter Milan were mainly supported by the more prosperous middle class.[85] The oldest ultras groups in all of Italian football, Fossa dei Leoni, originated in Milan.[86] Currently, the main ultras group within the support base is Brigate Rossonere.[86] Milan ultras have never had any particular political preference,[86] but the media traditionally associated them with the left wing[87] until recently,[when?] when Berlusconi's presidency[clarification needed] somewhat[quantify] altered that view.[clarification needed][according to whom?][88]
According to a study from 2010, Milan is the most supported Italian team in Europe and seventh overall, with over 18.4 million fans.[89] It had the thirteenth highest average attendance of European football clubs during the 2019–20 season, behind Borussia Dortmund, Bayern Munich, Manchester United, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Inter, Schalke 04, Tottenham Hotspur, Celtic, Atlético Madrid, West Ham United and Arsenal.[90]