Fassone: 'UEFA politically against Milan'

By Football Italia staff

Marco Fassone insists UEFA rejected Milan Financial Fair Play proposals as a “political decision” and defended Yonghong Li’s refusal to give details.

The Rossoneri CEO spoke at a book launch and you can read the rest of his comments here.

While there are problems on the field with a 3-0 defeat to Verona, there have also been issues off it, with UEFA rejecting the proposed Voluntary Agreement for Financial Fair Play terms.

UEFA specifically cited a lack of guarantees on the loan from Elliot Management and status of owner Yonghong Li’s fortune.

“I think the decision was, with all due respect for those who made it, political in nature,” insisted Fassone. “There is a new President of UEFA who considers sanctions to be the right path forward.

“The Voluntary Agreement is an idea introduced before he came along and nobody before us had even tried it before. A club like ours and a few others that made such big investments are probably not seen in a positive light.

“There will be sanctions for having burst the Financial Fair Play limitations over the last three years and we weren’t even there at the time.

“This decision does leave a bitter taste in the mouth. It’s a shame that the version put across in the media is that our plans were rejected, because that is not the case. Our plans do exist, they are clear and detailed.”

Much has been written about Yonghong Li, as he doesn’t appear on the list of richest men in China and investigations by the likes of the New York Times, Bloomberg and Il Sole 24 Ore newspaper found little evidence of his assets.

“I don’t think we can change the reserved nature of Yonghong Li,” continued Fassone.

“I asked David (Han Li) to hold a meeting with all my managers so he could explain their intentions and the desire not to take the spotlight.

“They are very resistant to the idea of saying things that would greatly help us Italians to understand the situation, as we are accustomed to things being done differently.

“They have a different philosophy to ours and every now and then it puts me in a difficult spot, because I am then forced to speak on their behalf.”

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