Milan CEO Ivan Gazidis warns some players ‘have to leave as free agents for the figures they are requesting,’ as agents act as ‘if COVID never happened,’ while clubs must be more responsible.

The Rossoneri announced their 2020-21 balance sheet with consolidated losses of €96.4m, almost halving last season’s €194m.

“We are laying the foundations for our ambitious project of Milan in the future, with a clear and coherent strategy,” Gazidis told reporters.

“We intend to create an innovative and sustainable model, both on and off the pitch. We are a club working to bring Milan back where it belongs.”

Milan halve losses, discuss new stadium plans

Gazidis spoke about the on-going issue of contract negotiations, after losing Gianluigi Donnarumma and Hakan Calhanoglu for free to PSG and Inter respectively.

The club now risks a similar outcome with Franck Kessie, whose deal expires in June 2022, with Alessio Romagnoli also ready to walk away for free.

“Decisions are never easy. In the past, players didn’t push to leave as free agents. Instead, today the clubs operate in a more responsible fashion on a financial level, whereas players and agents act as if COVID never happened.

“Some players have to leave as free agents for the figures they are requesting. We will continue to make decisions in the best interests of the club, remaining competitive at the top in Serie A and Europe, but we cannot ignore economic sustainability.

“I think we might’ve made mistakes, but all decisions were made for the good of the club.”

Milannews.it examined the latest balance sheet and calculated that since taking over from Yonghong Li, Elliott Management pumped €500m into the club’s capital.

2 thought on “Gazidis: ‘Agents act like COVID never happened’”
  1. The issue isn’t really players and agents acting like covid didn’t happen. The issue is that you’ve got clubs like PSG, the two Spanish clubs and majority of English clubs able to somehow pay way over the odds. One because the financial rules somehow doesn’t apply for some, others simply because of the income from the league they operate in, and then you have the printing machine clubs.

    Does anyone really blame Kessie if he doesn’t accept a certain figure, when a club outside of Italy can most likely double his wages? They sit there on their talksports and five live’s criticising agents, but the clubs seem to be more than happy to pay the wages, sign on fees and exaggerated commissions.

  2. well main problem in Italy is the hard bureaucracy of the govt.. football business is hard to develop.. even just to build your own stadium is hard as hell.. also many of foreign clubs already owned by those crazy rich arabians who can splash money without thinking.

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