Milan CEO Marco Fassone feels “surprise and bitterness” that UEFA refused to offer a settlement agreement, as the club could be excluded from Europe.
The decision was announced via a statement this evening, which specifically cited question marks over owner Yonghong Li and his €380m debt to US hedge fund Elliott Management, which is due to be repaid in full in October.
Milan CEO Marco Fassone feels “surprise and bitterness” that UEFA refused to offer a settlement agreement, as the club could be excluded from Europe.
The decision was announced via a statement this evening, which specifically cited question marks over owner Yonghong Li and his €380m debt to US hedge fund Elliott Management, which is due to be repaid in full in October.
“It seems important for Milan to take a clear position after reading the UEFA statement. As you can imagine, that gave us surprise and a great deal of bitterness, because frankly I expected UEFA to offer a settlement agreement,” Fassone told reporters at the Lega Serie A summit.
“Since Financial Fair Play has been in place, the settlement agreement has been offered to all clubs, only to one Russian club of a low status was it denied.
“We went to UEFA for the first time 15 days after closing, so very premature situation to offer our plans. We had the right to a voluntary agreement, as the club had changed ownership in 2017, but that was not given because they required €165m from the holding company.
“UEFA said the fact the holding, and not the club, has still not refinanced the debt with Elliott is casting shadows over the future of the club after October 2018.
“So this is based entirely on doubts and assumptions about what could potentially happen. These doubts are based on nothing, because the year has seen consistent repayment of debts by the deadlines and nothing ever affected the club.
“Also, Elliott are the creditors and have offered to act as guarantors for the debt with a written statement.
“Obviously, tomorrow our legal team will evaluate the situation, as the fact we were deferred to the Adjudicatory Chamber is damaging to the club and to our image, so that has to be looked at carefully.
“We will bring the data to the chamber and point out Milan of today must pay for the errors of the club from 2014 to 2017, when there was a completely different owner.
“We are running this club in a very healthy and balanced way, so we fully expected UEFA to offer us a settlement agreement. Frankly, I was really let down.”
There have been 16 clubs excluded from UEFA competition due to failed Financial Fair Play tests, but most came after an initial year of probation.
Having already rejected a voluntary agreement proposal in December, UEFA are evidently unconvinced by the financial plans at Milan.