Milan risk two-year UEFA ban

By Football Italia staff

Milan could be excluded from Europe for two years and fined €30m for FFP violations, while Rocco Commisso is identified as the potential buyer.

The Rossoneri are due to discover their future over the next tumultuous 10 days.

Not only are negotiations on-going in New York for Yonghong Li to sell at least part of his shares to NY Cosmos owner and Forbes 400 billionaire Rocco Commisso, but the club also faces the UEFA verdict over Financial Fair Play violations.

According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, Milan will be excluded from all European competition for two years and not just the current campaign, where they qualified for the Europa League.

They would also be fined €30m for not balancing revenue with spending after their €200m transfer spree last summer.

The verdict is expected tomorrow, but Milan are already planning their appeal to the Tribunal of Arbitration for Sport (TAS).

Negotiations to sell the club to American investor Commisso, who is a long way ahead of a rival bid from Tom Ricketts, have come far too late to make a difference in the FFP case.

If anything, Yonghong Li’s position is even weaker now because he failed to pay the €32m needed to raise the capital this week and the money will be provided by US hedge fund Elliott Management.

If Li doesn’t repay that sum within the next 10 working days, it’ll begin the process for Elliott to effectively take over the club.

It remains to be seen if Commisso will prefer to negotiate a takeover with Yonghong Li or wait a little while and talk with Elliott instead.

The Corriere della Sera newspaper maintains Milan’s Chinese owner isn’t going down without a fight and is still trying to sell only a minority share in the club rather than a majority.

Again, the presence of a new and clearly financially-stable owner such as Commisso could make a big difference when the appeal to the TAS comes around.

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