AC Milan and the plots on the appointment of the new CEO

It’s not often that the new CEO of a company is seen to be the manager of the fund that just divested that company. It happened to Milan which will have Giorgio Furlani as new, until yesterday Elliott’s portfolio manager. It was chosen by RedBird who, after having taken the path of corporate continuity by confirming Paolo Scaroni, Paolo Maldini and Ricky Massara, has also chosen to continue along the line drawn by the owners in recent years. The Gerry Cardinale fund, in fact, has entrusted the main operational position of AC Milan to an executive of the previous majority shareholder. He did so with a press release where a curious expression is used when RedBird says he has “taken upon himself the responsibility of becoming the keeper of AC Milan”.
It is not the first change of field within this waltz of disposals that began in April 2017 with the transition from Fininvest to Yonghong Li. The advisor to the mysterious Chinese businessman in that operation was the Rothschild international investment bank, of which Scaroni was and still is vice president, also very close to Elliott. When Yonghong Li defaulted in July 2018 (largely predictable given his financial inconsistency) resulting in the exercise of the pledge by Elliott, Scaroni from a member of the Rossoneri board of directors in Elliott share became president of Milan. It is the phase in which the American hedge fund plays a fundamental role in Tim as opposed to Vivendi’s French, simultaneously engaged in a hostile assault on Fininvest. Scaroni and Furlani represent the two figures present since the beginning of this story. And now, after two changes of ownership, they are still there at the two command posts of Milan. It is as if in this affair there was a minimum common denominator that resists, regardless of the passage of the odds.
The choice of Furlani represents a guarantee of the economic and financial policy in the management of Milan, in particular of the amount of wages reduced in a virtuous way in recent years. A strategy that is being tested at its highest level in recent weeks by the renewal of the contract of Leao, the champion of the Italian champions, expiring in 2024. A white smoke is not taken for granted by Milan who, in fact, are moving to keep Salzburg striker Noah Okafor under control, identified as the ideal replacement for Leao in case of failure to sign on the extension and therefore forced sale in the market next summer.
Without forgetting that two lawsuits are still pending by those who have crossed their stories with those of Elliott in recent years: Yonghong Li and Blue Skye. These disputes may also have little legal value, but they represent the aftermath of links that were not always very clear in their initial genesis. Therefore, with regard to this aspect, it could assume a certain relevance to rely on those who have a thorough knowledge of the whole affair. The same renewal of Leao calls into question the previous link of Elliott as a creditor of Lille. The Portuguese, in fact, had to pay a maxi-fine to Sporting Lisbon precisely because of the way he moved from the green-and-whites to Lille in those years. And it is precisely the assumption of this fine that is the key to renewal. The consequence is that RedBird (also the beneficiary of a substantial loan from Elliott for the purchase of Milan) has in fact left the former president and CEO of the Rossoneri club to the previous property.