AC Milan's CEO, Ivan Gazidis, had these words to say during the club's shareholders meeting at Casa Milan today:
"Sponsorships? As you well know we have a relationship with Fly Emirates where we help each other to grow. I hope we will be in a position to make an announcement soon."
Can the total of wages be increased?
"We are always in a growth process. Every year we will grow, this revenue growth means that it is possible to do bigger things in the market. The money is available to invest in all aspects of the club, salaries and in the market."
Gazidis on future investments:
"It is the basis of our strategy, a virtuous cycle. When revenues grow it is possible to invest more, the larger the investments and the more we can do in the field if we did things right."
On the work done with RedBird:
"RedBird has great expertise in all areas of sport, particularly commercial, and fan relations. They are learning, they understand very well that football is different in the USA: they have experiences with Liverpool and Toulouse and they have to listen and learn for a while. They believe that there are many things that bring this environment to Italian football, and I do too: there are many things that we need to improve if we want to grow. The RedBird experience will change not only the future of Milan, but also of Italian football."
Is the Super League project still standing?
"The problems remain, the Superlega is not the right answer but the problems are there."
What is the strategy for the renewal of Rafael Leao?
"No more voices are needed besides that of Paolo Maldini. Paolo is asked weekly about Leao. I won't add anything else and we leave it to him to give the statements on the matter."
Is it possible for you to renew your contract with Milan?
"The thing that interests me most is precisely the value of this project, which does not depend on individuals but on the teamwork of a well-cohesive team that can collaborate profitably. I feel the responsibility to have a project that can work solidly, this is my first concern and my first responsibility as it has always been until now. I will discuss all this with peace of mind with RedBird and when the time comes we will make a communication."
Will Milan be able to do player trading? Gazidis answered with the following:
"I would like to say that Milan remains one of the biggest brands in football, and there are different levels, as the president said, that are behind the commercial growth like the stadium and the performances on the pitch. These things require experience and balance, if you proceed too quickly on one side you lose on the other. Revenue growth goes nowhere without increasing performance in the field. There are risks in being conservative and risks in being too aggressive. And this is where experience and balance come into play. This also applies to player trading: believing that it is better to always keep our best players could paradoxically be too conservative. Over time, the age of the squad will increase, what one could think of obtaining from investments will not have its real counterpart. These problems are evident in many football clubs", Said Gazidis, "On the other hand, if you are too aggressive in obtaining significant revenues from player trading, creating an amount of salaries based on these presumptions which then prove to be unreachable would mean being aggressive, endangering the balance of the club. What we want is growth in all areas."
Gazidis on the goal of reaching the 'break even' point in the balance sheet of the club:
"I consider a positive EBDA to be an important result, having therefore gone into breakeven from a cash point of view: it means that, except for extraordinary transactions, we do not always have to knock on the shareholder's door. I don't foresee it for 2022/2023, but for the next one if the sporting results continue to be like this I don't know if we will break even but we will certainly continue to get cash."