Milan owner Gerry Cardinale believes that the Rossoneri are among the world’s biggest clubs and are deserving of a seat at the world table, but has admitted that it is impossible to achieve success through financial investment alone.
The RedBird Capital founder spoke of his desire to lead Milan to championship titles in Italy in Europe, although confessed that having one team that wins everything goes against the nature of the sport.
Cardinale was speaking on a panel of experts at the Michigan Institute of Technology’s ‘Investing in Global Sports’ seminar as part of their Sports Analytics Conference on Monday morning.
When asked about the stature of Milan as a club, Cardinale responded: “One of the things that surprised me is that Milan has the second most number of Champions League trophies after Real Madrid. I hadn’t really kept up with that.
“But it’s an undermanaged asset. “Serie A has a right to have a seat at the world table and Milan have a right at that table. It’s our job to do that.”
On his desire to win multiple Championships, Cardinale added: “In sport, you can’t buy championships. I would obviously like to win the Scudetto and the Champions League every year, but if we did it would be contrary to our job.
“Our job is to get a return on this investment and if every year the same people win it wouldn’t work, right? It would make the evaluation completely dilutive.
“What we can control is to reduce the performance variability. The thing that I find phenomenal is that a lot of people come into the sport and think that the ‘The goal is to win championships.’ Of course, we all want to win, but if you look at it through the purely non-emotional lens of an investor, the goal is to consistently perform.”
Cardinale believes that on top of his commitment to Milan, he also has a responsibility to help boost the financial income of Serie A clubs collectively.
His aim is to help bring Italian clubs closer in line with those in England by exploring different options for potential revenue sources.
One of the biggest financial disparities between English and Italian clubs lies in the fees received for the sale of broadcasting rights.
Cardinale hopes that the league are able to profit more from future TV rights deals moving forwards.
He explained: “We have to focus not only on being competitive in Serie A, but also on how to help Serie A be competitive with the Premier League and La Liga.
“We have to think about how to help Serie A and get a better kind of agreement for the sale of TV rights both in the country and abroad to reduce the gap. And if we succeed then we do good for the whole FIFA ecosystem, with the continent managing to be more competitive compared to England.”