Berlusconi: 'I want to stay President'

By Football Italia staff

Silvio Berlusconi reportedly confessed he wants to remain as Milan President, which is holding up the sale to China.

The news will enrage fans who have been urging him to sell up in order to spark a revolution at the troubled club.

Monday's front pages of the Corriere dello Sport and Tuttosport carry the same quote Berlusconi said at an event marking 50 years since his first building project.

"The Chinese want to kick me out," he told reporters at the public get-together.

"I am the problem holding up the sale. I want a clause that will allow me to remain as President for another three years, but they do not agree."

Berlusconi has made it abundantly clear he does not want to sell the club he has owned for over 30 years.

He was pushed to enter exclusive negotiations by his family and the shareholders of his holding company Fininvest, but there continue to be hold-ups.

Until the exclusivity deadline on June 15, all major decisions at Milan have to go through the potential buyers in China.

That includes the fate of Coach Cristian Brocchi, who Berlusconi wants to retain next season.

"We'll see how the whole issue of the sale goes," Berlusconi told news agency Ansa this evening.

"I was convinced that I was doing the right thing by putting Brocchi there. He is a reliable and capable person.

"I want to find a buyer who has a lot of ambition and wants to take Milan back to being a protagonist again."

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