Milan have a €150m deposit for the club's sale, though the identity of the buyers is still doubtful.
As the Rossoneri face an internal crisis over the poor management of the last few years, the process for the sale of the club appears to be accelerating.
Milan have a €150m deposit for the club's sale, though the identity of the buyers is still doubtful.
As the Rossoneri face an internal crisis over the poor management of the last few years, the process for the sale of the club appears to be accelerating.
Rumours that a deal could be reached as early as this coming Monday are corroborated by reports from the Corriere della Sera and Calcio e Finanza, who claim that the Chinese buyers left a deposit of €150m for the purchase of Milan.
This should go a way towards reassuring President Silvio Berlusconi and his associates, who spent months negotiating with broker Bee Taechaubol only to find that there were no substantial buyers behind him.
However, although the financial stock is not in doubt, there is still some uncertainty regarding the composition of the Chinese conglomerate looking to buy the club, and the Italian holding company Fininvest has requested clarifications.
The owner of Alibaba Group Jack Ma, for example, had been associated to the purchase, but he has now detached himself via a sarcastic comment on social media.
“AC Milan? Is that in the Italian city of Milan?” reads his Weibo profile. “I heard that the NBA's Tyson went to Milan.”
At the same time, today's edition of the Corriere dello Sport reports of at least five or six major financial parties from China that will be involved in the transaction should Berlusconi choose to sell, though it does not specify their identity.
In the preliminary deal to be signed on Monday, Berlusconi will allegedly sell 70 per cent of Milan's shares, and the remaining 30 per cent over the space of another year, during which time he and Adriano Galliani would keep managing the team and the market. The total cost of the transaction would amount to €720m.