Milan are at risk of being handed two painful sanctions following the Milan Prosecutor’s Office’s investigation into Giorgio Furlani and Ivan Gazidis.
On Tuesday afternoon, the Guardia di Finanza – Italy’s financial police – searched the club’s Casa Milan headquarters as part of an investigation into Elliott Management’s sale of the Rossoneri to RedBird back in August 2022. Current CEO Furlani and his predecessor Gazidis are at the centre of this investigation.
The allegations centre around the possible ‘obstruction of the supervisory activities of the FIGC’, with the investigation focusing on if Elliott truly relinquished control of the club to RedBird back in 2022, la Gazzetta dello Sport details.
There are multiple aspects of the Code of Sports Justice that could’ve been violated in this deal, ranging from article 32 paragraph five which is focused on ‘the communication and filing obligations’ regarding the control of the club to article 31 paragraph one on ‘failure to produce, the alteration or the material or ideological falsification, even partial, of the documents requested by the bodies of sports justice’.
Penalties for violating these sections of the Code of Sports range from fines to possible point deductions, giving the prosecutors flexibility.
Milan could also be penalised by UEFA, as Elliott own significant shares in Ligue 1 side Lille, so there is a risk that article five of the UEFA regulations on ‘integrity of competitions and timeshares’ was violated. Lille didn’t qualify for European competition last season and only reached the Conference League this term, so it’s hard to imagine any sanctions stemming from this.
UEFA may believe that article four of the regulations, focused on ‘admission procedures and criteria’, could’ve been violated, however. This could lead to an exclusion from UEFA competitions, but much depend on the development of this complex legal case.