Gerry Cardinale, founder of RedBird and the owner of the AC Milan club, spoke once again about the investigation into the Rossoneri and who really owns the club.
Here are his words in an interview with 'Il Sole 24 Ore' this morning.
"Given the interest I observe about our ownership, I would like to clarify the facts once and for all: RedBird is the controlling shareholder of 99.93% of AC Milan; the remaining 0.07% consists of individual Italian investors who are long-time fans of the Club. I have also asked the New York Yankees to invest a small minority stake together with RedBird as part of our overall investment, given the strong 25-year partnership I have with them."
Gerry Cardinale added:
"When we took control of the club at the time of the closing, Elliott provided a loan to RedBird with a duration of three years and zero governance rights. This loan is no different from any other third-party financing we could have obtained, with the additional benefit that Elliott brought a track record of improving AC Milan prior to our acquisition. I have just arrived and I have no intention of selling Milan. My goal is to build a solid and winning reality together. Financial solidity and autonomy are necessary conditions to win competitions in a healthy manner. Milan has extraordinary room for growth in sporting performance and enormous margins for economic improvement. Aren't we in the top of the league? We are still in second place. And we will never stop aiming to win. Why should I give up ownership? There are no talks with any investor who could obtain control or ownership of Milan. I plan to stay in Milan for a long time."
Gerry Cardinale continued:
"Sport is one of the fundamental elements of my platform idea. Our portfolio of sports activities represents a total value of 30 billion dollars, 5 billion dollars of which is the value of the companies we have created. I believe in the public-private partnership model, which is based on the union between communities and between those who have money and those who don't. The case of Milan is perfect. There is Milan, which is both a business and a football team. There is ownership, which is RedBird. There is the community of fans. There is the city."
