Prime News Ghana

UEFA ban AC Milan from European competition next season

By Haruna Mubarak
AC Milan banned from European competitions next season
AC Milan banned from European competitions next season
Shares
facebook sharing button Share
twitter sharing button Tweet
email sharing button Email
sharethis sharing button Share

UEFA announced its decision on Tuesday, citing that Milan would not be able to play in any European competition for the 2018/19 campaign despite qualifying for the Europa League.

The Italian based club last year spent over  £175million on new players which raised questions over the financial stability of the Chinese-led consortium that purchased the club from Silvio Berlusconi for £600m in April 2017.

On Wednesday, a UEFA statement read: "The club is excluded from participating in the next UEFA club competition for which it would otherwise qualify."

AC Milan can choose to appeal the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Following the ban, AC Milan released a video on Twitter in reaction to the ban.

'Ahead of UEFA's judgement, we want to share with you some significant facts. We are expecting fairness, rulings based on facts, equal rules for all,' Milan captioned their video message on Twitter.

Some of the club's problems stem from when they took a loan from U.S. private equity fund Elliott worth more than £263m that club chairman Li Yonghong has struggled to pay back. 'We invested more than €200m to open up a new era. A year later, the value of the investment remains unaltered and the value of the squad is the third highest in Serie A.

'We secured qualification to the Europa League group stage and reached two finals of the Coppa Italia (both senior squad and youth team).

'We are requalifying the Milanello training ground and taking part in the next season of the Women's Serie A league. We adhered to the initiative of the FIGC on B-Teams and, if included in the list, will participate in the next Lega Pro season with our Under-21 side.

'We immediately worked to make the organisation more efficient so we could run it in a virtuous manner. Despite the fact that after the "closing" two main sponsors (Audi and Adidas) resolved their contracts with Milan, we still closed the balance sheet with €20m more in revenue.

Read also: Russia 2018: South Korea send Germany home after beating them 2-0

The ban could increase speculation over the futures of goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma and defender Leonardo Bonucci, who have persistently been linked with moves away from the San Siro.

Latest sports news in Ghana

 
Â