MILAN, A CLASH BETWEEN UEFA-FIFA IS BEHIND THE “NO” ON THE FINANCIAL FAIR PLAY:
Behind a possible refusal to the participation in the next Europa League there might be a great game of power. Are the Rossoneri a predestined victim?
It's about 7pm, on the display of my mobile phone the prefix +041 appears, it's a Swiss number, Zurich to be specific: the phone call I've been waiting for.
The person on the other end of the line is a flooded river, full of information and I take diligent notes:
"It's a FIFA-UEFA clash and Milan is the ideal victim to send a clear message to the other clubs that ally with FIFA". And to think that everything started from an in depth analysis of the new "World Cup for Clubs" but instead we ended up talking about this clash that is also involving Milan and its FFP and issues in Europe.
The same Europe that the Club of Via Aldo Rossi is currently risking to see fade away in mid-June, but let’s take things step by step.
1. MILAN'S APPEAL AND UEFA'S STANCE
At Milan - despite the short time available, about ten days – a team of FFP experts and foreign specialists in sports law are currently working day and night to present their appeal by the 31st of this month. The brigade of professionals is currently being led by Lawyer Cappelli.
The hearing will take place on June 7th and then – probably a few days later - the decision will arrive, but what many do not know is that the request (or the suggestion ...) made by the investigation room (the one that referred Milan to the CFCB and denied the settlement) to the Adjudicatory Chamber is very precise: to exclude Milan from European competitions.
This is the first anomaly, since there is already a regulation on sanctions, the investigative room should not give this kind of "suggestions" to the Adjudicatory Chamber.
However, we must specify that "historically" the Adjudicatory Chamber is an organ that has a certain independence, and is reluctant to be dictated by another body and therefore could easily overturn the recommendation of the investigative chamber and in turn allow the Rossoneri to participate in European football.
Milan is ready to play his cards, confident of being able to at least get an impartial listening and without prejudices. ("Unless Ceferin, current UEFA President - has imposed his power there ..." adds my source).
From my long phone call it emerges that UEFA's report (much more detailed than the poor official statement on their website) was written in a biased manner, misinterpreting the whole situation which is currently involving the Rossoneri.
"We explicitly found that UEFA will to go beyond the FFP to punish Milan beyond measure, it would have been right to grant the Settlement Agreement, a fine would have been understandable, at most a squad limitation for European competitions similar to Inter, however the exclusion from European tournaments is simply a punitive measure ... " my source tells me on the phone.
The second anomaly is that in the documents drawn up by the investigative room are only extracted from the reports of directors, auditors and auditing companies are mentioned, which hints at the risk of the failing business continuity, only to omit all the considerations that exclude this type of risk and throw out of the window the actual reality of the finances of the Club.
Milan therefore does not give up, continues to work on it and in case of any decision to exclude the Club from European football, they are ready to challenge the decision through the Court of Arbitration for Sports in Lausanne, Switzerland.
1.1 So again with this theory that Milan is a victim because they are ugly and bad?
No, first and foremost Li Yonghong needs to decide what he wants to do as President, whether to accelerate the refinancing (the decision which the current management is trying to push for) or to simply change ownership. However they are running out of time, by the end of June we could have a clearer picture of the situation, as President Li will be due to pay the last portion of the capital increase (€30 million) and in the scenario in which he fails to make the payment in full, Elliott will intervene and will therefore send yet another stream of shock waves (perhaps the decisive ones).
2. UEFA VS FIFA (Ceferin vs Infantino)
Here the voice and tone of my source starts to suddenly change: "It’s a war between two realities, UEFA wants the sole control of European football and its competitions". It is not easy, but I will do my best to explain in clearest of manners.
We are facing a real conflict that sees FIFA promote the World Cup for Clubs and UEFA taking this as a threat that will overshadow their own competitions.
Ceferin is not enthusiastic about FIFA's movements on this front and with the alliance of the Eca bank and Juventus President Andrea Agnelli (his words: "Infantino should ask himself what the role of FIFA is” are not a coincidence) UEFA is feeling threatened, and is trying to impose its jurisdiction on European football without tolerating any invasion of their own pitch.
And what better occasion for UEFA to send a message to the big clubs that support FIFA, if not to exploit the political weakness of Milan, proving able to harshly punish a Club despite the name and reputation of the Club? (the same reputation that would allow the participation in the World Cup for Clubs).
It's a dual functionality: a scapegoat and an intimidating message to other clubs, along the lines of: "You want to participate in FIFA tournaments? And I'll sanction you ...”
3. THE FUTURE OF THE ROSSONERI
The fight is political, we’ve understood this, said it and repeated it multiple times, but what worries the Milan supporters is the future of their beloved Club.
As mentioned above, the more time goes by the higher the risk of hearing the gong’s echoing sound that will mark the end of the Chinese ownership, with Elliott ready to take possession of the club as agreed in the terms of the loans.
3.1 What will Paul Singer's fund do then?
In recent days we have read of a potential interest of Stephen Ross (a friend of Sal Galatioto among others, whose last destinations were California, Ireland and return to New York and not Italy as it was reported), number one of the Miami Dolphin with a net worth of about 7.6 billion dollars, from our verifications the interest is there but it goes back a few months, at the moment the American entrepreneurs who are interested in the Club (more than one ...) are at the window, carefully monitoring the situation and awaiting for the possible shift of ownership to Elliott to then appear.
