Rybolovlev too late to save Li

By Football Italia staff

More confirmation arrives that Yonghong Li has agreed to sell most of Milan to Monaco patron Dmitry Rybolovlev, but Elliott Management won’t hear of it.

The situation is reaching an ugly and bitter head in Luxembourg on Monday.

Yonghong Li failed to meet Friday’s deadline to pay back €32m that hedge fund Elliott had loaned to cover club capital when Li missed another deadline last month.

Elliott can now consider him in default and repossess his assets, but the paperwork can only be filed from Monday where the holding company is in Luxembourg.

According to financial paper Il Sole 24 Ore, Yonghong Li’s plan is to sign the pre-agreement with Rybolovlev and present it on Monday to cover the outstanding debt.

That would include the €380m loan, taken out in April 2017 to buy the club from Silvio Berlusconi, which must be repaid in full in October.

However, Elliott have no intention of taking what would be a bad business decision for them.

If Li is in default, they can take over a club worth €740m for just €412m, then negotiate the sale to any buyer they wish on their terms.

The American hedge fund is not eager to lose money or let Li maintain a minority stake in the Serie A side.

There are possibly clauses in the contract that Li will try to exploit, sparking a legal battle, but the ownership of Milan continues to be a huge problem.

Pre-season training has already begun in a chaotic situation that saw Milan excluded from Europe for failing Financial Fair Play tests.

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