According to L’Equipe, Milan owners Elliott are preparing to sell the club as UEFA investigate their suspicious links with French club Lille.
The paper reports that Elliott are considering selling the club and names the Bahrain-based investment fund Investcorp as a possible buyer for the Rossoneri. L’Equipe analyses the connections between Milan and Lille reporting that UEFA are also keeping a close eye on the transfers between the two clubs over the last few years.
Back in December 2020, the American investment fund sold the French club to Merlyn Advisors, a Luxemburg-based fund founded by the Dutch Maarten Petermann and the Italian Alessandro Barnaba.
Petermann insists that Elliott has no representative in Lille or Merlyn Advisors, so they can’t ‘in any way influence the club’s decisions.’ So, why are UEFA investigating the links between Milan and Lille through Elliott?
According to the report, Birch International and Birch Associates, who have their offices at the Elliott headquarters in West Palm Beach, Florida, control Callisto Sporting, which, in its turn, Merlyn Advisors owns. At the same time, Merlyn is holding Lille’s debt through Callisto Sporting.
Milan and Lille have completed several deals over the last few years. The Rossoneri signed Rafael Leao and Mike Maignan and seem close to signing Sven Botman and Renato Sanches.
However, suspicious transfers don’t seem to be the only issue as the UEFA statute specifies that “Member Associations shall ensure that neither a natural nor a legal person (including holding companies and subsidiaries) exercises control or influence over more than one of their clubs whenever the integrity of any match or competition organised at Member Association level could be jeopardized. Member Associations shall include such an obligation in their statutes and lay down the necessary implementing provisions.”
It doesn’t appear clear from the report whether UEFA has already opened an official investigation into the matter, but Elliott seem ready to take action and that could include selling the Serie A giants in the near future.
L’Equipe: "Milan in vendita, contatti tra Elliott e il fondo mediorientale Investcorp" https://t.co/C6NT3XRK1k
— La Gazzetta dello Sport (@Gazzetta_it) April 15, 2022
I can’t imagine f.i. Maldini operating in his club with that kind of Damocles’ sword above its head; given the decisions from the past. Then again it’s football. Curious to see what follows. From an Inter fan.
I remember posting a few months ago that I was worried about Milan‘s ownership being unstable. Sure enough, this news comes up. Is this a good development for the team…Bahrainian ownership? I’m sure they’d through money into the team…but it doesn’t give me a warm and fuzzy feeling as a Milan fan. I hope this doesn’t detract the team from the scudetto this year.
Looks like it’s an issue regarding Elliot if anything. I don’t see how this involves Milan as the value for the players bought from Lille was paid in full every time.
I hope they won’t sell to sheikhs. I’d hate that.
It’s clear there’s a very close relationship with Lille… I dislike Elliot before their Milan takeover but knew they would right the Milan ship because they are shrewd business people, I highly doubt they did something illegal or against the rules, their lawyers find loopholes in brick-walls! I think this is Elliot’s way of giving Milan one last push in financial support before the new FFP… as you’ll recall Milan has overspent FFP but had a deal with UEFA, the new owners may well do the same trick.
But if Milan are truly for sale I would be be surprised if PIF/Aramco or a number of those people bidding for Chelsea don’t look at Milan because it is a fantastic opportunity and a historic club.
p.s. Milan fans, you guys have spent ALOT more in the transfer market with Elliot, in fact in terms of all transfer activity you’ve outspent Inter in the past 5 years.
Its not about transfer business being shaddy rather Elliot owing milan at one hand and having some form of Influence at lille..so what uefa is looking at a owner can’t have stakes in two big clubs at same time playing European competition….I may be wrong though here
How is this a problem but what Red Bull does isn’t?
@chris the problem I think is that the ties between Milan and Lille are undisclosed whereas Red Bull probably have everything pre approved with Uefa
People can say what they want about Juve but at least it is the devil you know and Italian. How Silvio sold the club to con men is beyond me given his business acumen and now another owner beckons. Same with Inter and Chelski to follow suit.