Paolo Scaroni has reiterated the financial health that AC Milan now enjoy as a club, also insisting that money generated has been reinvested.
This afternoon marked the Club’s Shareholders’ Meeting hosted by Scaroni, and it was called in order to approve the accounts for the 2022-23 season, with the €6.1m profit that had previously been reported being confirmed.
It shows how far Milan have come given they were making nearly €200m in losses just a few years ago, while last season also brought in record revenues thanks also to the run deep into the Champions League.
The club offered a digital media brief for journalists starting from 14:30 during which Scaroni and the CFO Stefano Cocirio presented the report of the Board of Directors, with MilanNews relaying the comments from the former.
“The meeting went very well. It lasted 45 minutes. The consolidated financial statement was approved and forecasts a profit of 6 million; as it is June 30th, it is ahead of the entire summer transfer campaign,” he said.
“The turnover is over 400 million, it [the club] generated 78 million in cash with investments of 79 million: all the cash generated was invested. It was a good year.
“When I became president, we had revenues of less than 200 million and now they have doubled. The Champions League played a very important role and the performance in the Champions League: of the 400 million in revenues, the Champions League brought in more than 100.
“I say this to make it clear how important it is to be in the Champions League and to do well in the Champions League: this is why I say that I am interested in being in Champions League; with it we nourish our fans around the world and our sporting performances.”
Is there any update on the stadium situation?
“I saw with pleasure that Sala is moving to remove the pre-announcement of the restriction [on San Siro’s second tier].
“I must tell the truth: with a certain regret I see these new moves by the mayor, because if the municipal administration had embraced the project 4 years ago and he, we would have already built the stadium.
“I cannot forget the city council’s failure to endorse the stadium project in Milan, also because there were those who paid for it with the two clubs ready to finance it.
“Now the mayor is struggling to unravel the tangle of the superintendency; as long as the constraint stands, the San Siro hypothesis does not exist.
“We as Milan are moving forward on San Donato: we are studying all the financing hypotheses with our own resources and financing; we are working on it.
“Until there is the approval of the variant there will be no need for further expenses beyond the 40 million of the pre-project expenses.”
How did things go with Leao’s renewal?
“The operation was managed with great skill by Giorgio Furlani: without his ability to negotiate it and understand the legal intrigue it would have been difficult to complete it.
“In essence there is a five-year renewal with Leao, then the mechanics of negotiation are best talked about by Furlani.”
APA Milan are absent, after their critical statement…
“RedBird owns 99.97% of Milan, the rest of the shares are 0.3% with hundreds of shareholders, some of whom have joined forces in APA, representing 0.02% with a total investment of 23 thousand euros.
“Milan dialogues with the shareholders at the shareholders’ meeting. APA is not an association of shareholders, but of fans; therefore we talk with the fans within the limits given to us by the FIGC, mixing the two makes life complicated for us.”
Is there a desire to extend the contracts of Maignan and Theo?
“We do not comment on the market operations of our players, but we have a common thread that we follow: the operations must be economically sustainable.
“We – in the context of economic sustainability – want to have strong players, with long-term contracts. When we approach we look at the renewals from this angle.”
Is there a chance, with these numbers, to make a big splash in attack next year?
“I hope so. Then economic results are greatly influenced by sporting results: if Milan does well in the Champions League, if they enter the Champions League next year and fight for the Scudetto… everything will be more sustainable.
“With revenues like that we could afford to look at next year’s market differently. Economic results and sporting results always go together. I hope that this continues and becomes even better than what we experienced.”
