ROME, July 22, 2018 (BSS/Xinhua) – AC Milan has elected a new board of
directors, signaling “the dawn of a new era”, the club announced Saturday.
The new board is comprised of Paolo Scaroni as interim CEO, Marco Patuano,
Franck Tuil, Giorgio Furlani, Stefano Cocirio, Salvatore Cerchione, Alfredo
Craca and Gianluca D’Avanzo.
“Following last week’s change in ownership, with Elliott (Advisors UK
Limited) assuming control of the club, AC Milan elected a new board at a
shareholder meeting today in Milan, signalling the dawn of a new era at the
club,” the team said in a statement.
“An announcement on the appointment of a new CEO, who has been identified,
will be made in due course.”
Elliott, a multi-billion-dollar investment management fund, announced on
July 10 that it had taken control of AC Milan “to enforce Elliott’s security
interests after the previous owner of AC Milan defaulted on its debt
obligations to Elliott.”
“As first measures, Elliott intends to inject 50 million euros (59 million
U.S. dollars) of equity capital to stabilize the club’s finances, and plans
to inject further capital over time to continue to fund AC Milan’s
transformation,” the fund said in a statement.
The takeover and capital injection prompted the Court of Arbitration for
Sport (CAS) on Friday to overturn a June decision by the European football
association (UEFA) to ban Milan from the next Europa League championship
after the club “failed to fulfill the (financial) break-even requirement”.
The CAS said in a statement that UEFA’s measure was “not proportionate”
because Milan is now in better financial shape “following the recent change
in the club’s ownership.”
Chinese investor Li Yonghong purchased the Serie A club in April 2017 from
media mogul and ex-prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s Fininvest holding
company for a total of 740 million euros.
That fee included a loan of at least 303 million euros from Elliott which
Li has defaulted on, ESPN sports channel reported earlier this month.
“We’re back in Europa League, we’re on to a new start with Elliott,” AC
Milan tweeted earlier Saturday.