Daily Times

MILAN: AC Milan said Wednesday that the European Super League is not on their agenda after posting losses of 66 million euros ($66.1 million) for the 2021/22 season. Speaking to shareholders following the approval of last season’s accounts, Milan CEO Paolo Scaroni said the Italian champions had “put the Super League to one side”. However, a source confirmed to AFP that Scaroni also said European football has problems the club hopes can be resolved so that a similar breakaway doesn’t happen again. Last week the new CEO of the company promoting the Super League, German businessman Bernd Reichart, said European football must hold talks to reshape its future and warned it is “becoming unsustainable” under the current system.

Some of Europe’s biggest clubs are going through serious financial problems in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, including Milan’s Serie A rivals Inter Milan and above all Juventus, who recently posted record losses of 254.3 million euros. Milan were one of the 12 clubs initially involved in the Super League project which was announced in April 2021 but quickly collapsed following fan outrage, principally among supporters of the six English teams in the founding group. Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juve continue to campaign for the Super League, while a dispute over an alleged abuse of a dominant position by UEFA is to be settled in early 2023 by the European Court of Justice.

In a statement released on Wednesday Milan said they had cut their losses by around a third to 66.5 million euros after increasing revenue by 14 percent to 297.7 million euros, with a 32.5 million increase in matchday revenue and commercial revenue up by 17.6 million euros. Matchday revenue was limited by Italian government restrictions during the pandemic which kept stadiums from being at full capacity until April this year. Since then fans have flooded into the San Siro to watch Milan win and defend their first Serie A title since 2011, with crowds regularly topping 70,000 at Italy’s most famous stadium. Tuesday’s 4-0 hammering of Dinamo Zagreb also gave Milan a great chance of making the last 16 of the lucrative Champions League for the first time since the 2013/14 season, which would further boost the club’s balance sheet. Stefano Pioli’s side only need a home draw with Salzburg in their final Group E fixture to qualify with Chelsea.