Thread #154326448
File: 1764225630250933.jpg (1.9 MB)
1.9 MB JPG
What happened to this club? They used to be good.
56 RepliesView Thread
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
File: 1768302062100262.jpg (122.6 KB)
122.6 KB JPG
>>154326448
>>
>>154326448
It's kind of fascinating. You look at the list of CL winners ... no casual would expect Milan to be second all-time with 7 wins. It only seems like a matter of time until Bayern, Liverpool, even Barcelona will leave them in the dust
Italy as a whole has pretty bad football infrastructure, many clubs have unprofitable and outdated stadiums that cost too much and bring in too little. I guess that applies to Milan as well, but it doesn't explain why they fell off so hard compared to Inter. Also, Inter and Milan at least own San Siro - many other Italian clubs don't own their stadiums, I believe
>>
>>154326448
In January 1997, the "Mani Pulite" investigation on Italian politics certified a transfer of 22 billion lire of slush funds from Fininvest's secret safe owned by Silvio Berlusconi and called "All Iberian" to a foreign account held by politician Bettino Craxi. This discovery caused a widening of the investigation that brought to light, after a series of rogatory letters, a system of pyramid transfers of illegal money in favor of AC Milan players: as much as 122.5 billion lire (61 million Euros) passed into the current accounts located in several tax havens of some Rossoneri players in the 1991-1994 period
The total of slush funds rose to 190 billion lire (95 million Euros), considering the years up to 1997. In summary, for the three Scudetto seasons of Capello's Milan, 20 million Euros were annually paid out illegally as extra salaries to Milan's players: all, of course, tax-free. The cover is one of Fininvest's countless fake companies, the "News and Sport Time", that was supposed to take care of the players' image rights, but it never happened
Money was paid to the players but the puppet companies did not then "use" the players for advertising means. That money, which went out the door, would come back in the window to the athletes' account, as additional but "tax-free" compensation. Fun fact: the names on the slush funds list would be coded using the last two letters of the players' first and last name. Stefano Eranio for example would thus become "Noio."
Ranking of emoluments paid to Milan players through slush funds: Van Basten 42.645 billion lire, Gullit 18.271 billion, Lentini 25.880 billion, Rijkaard 8 billion, Papin 4.889 billion, Baresi 4.500 billion, Maldini 4.355 billion, De Napoli 1.297 billion, Panucci 1.177 billion, Eranio 760 million, Tassotti 520 million, Savicevic 441 million.
The All Iberian trial ended on 22 November 2000, when Corte di Cassazione declared Silvio Berlusconi's acquittal due to the statute of limitations of the offense.
>>
>>
>>
>>154326448
It's funny how impressive this Serie A legacy from their golden age decades ago is. I swear, casuals still talk of the likes of Fiorentina with so much respect and awe, but then they won't budge when hearing about Frankfurt, for example
I'm not even particularly mad about it, that's just my impression whenever I hear people compare leagues. Goes to show how good Serie A had it in the past
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>154326448
>They used to be good.
>good
AC of late 80's were arguably the greatest club side ever. The flying Dutch, van Basten, Gullit, Rijkaard. General Franco Fucking Baresi. Maldini, Costacurta, Ancelotti, Donadoni..
The best owner,Silvio 'Bunga Bunga' Berlusconi - what Trump would be like, if he had Italian Style.
>>
File: trofei-berlusconi.jpg (175.5 KB)
175.5 KB JPG
>>154326448
he sold
>>
>>154341474
It was and unbelievable strong team, sure: but playing during the ban of english clubs (that won almost all the trophies in the previous decades) so they had to face litterally farmers teams from East Europe in the 89'-90' finals helped for sure
>>
>>154341474
>>154342373
Basically this. Berlusconi, aside from having money, was a great owner who took care of his players and really cared.
>>154351140
>so they had to face litterally farmers teams from East Europe in the 89'-90' finals helped for sure
Those "farmers teams" were full of world class players. It was before the Bosman rule so player movement was restricted.
>>
>>
>>
>>
File: 1751982094872313.webm (504.9 KB)
504.9 KB WEBM
>>154351275
I can see that lmao
>>
>>
File: BungaBunga.jpg (217.7 KB)
217.7 KB JPG
>>154351840
You can't claim, Silvio 'never cared' about football. He may well have been one of the most corrupt politicians in Italian history - which is saying something - but, man cared about his football.
As said, he was basically Trump with less scruples and better hair, but he also oversaw the transformation of AC Milan into one of the greatest club sides ever, no-one can argue that. You won't find many owners with clean hands and Silvios were doubtless a little grubbier than most. But claiming he was a bad owner or 'didn't care', that's nonsense. He cared for trophies and AC won them all under his ownership, repeatedly. And in style.
>>
>>
>>
>>154352209
>>154352328
we are still arguing about two different things here tho. Was Berlusconi thoroughly corrupt and AC Milan wages arrangements maybe not entirely kosher? As said, no argument, none. And the Man City comparison is probably a fair one.
BUT to argue that 'he didn't care..' about football, this is plain nonsense. He cared more than City's sheikhs, for sure. EOD, people will forget the payment scandals and remember the football. City's 115 charges will be long forgotten, but people will still remember and recognise, they played some good stuff under Pep, which is why people would still rather see them win than Arsenal. And long after Berlusconis death, people will still remember and recognise that era Milan as one of the greatest club sides in history, regardless how they got paid. A team with only two nationalities, unlikely to be repeated as a '3 foreigner rule' would be illegal now under EU law And Silvio put all that together, under his reign. tldr, he was as sketchy a rug seller as they come, but, he cared about his Milan alright.
>>
>>154326448
I live in Barcelona and Im not lying when I say that the football club shirt I see the most in tourists after Barça and Real Madrid its fucking AC Milan. I cant wrap my mind around it, they havent been relevant for years, how can this be? I see one every week, kids wearing it especially.
Maybe they just like the colors or they just care about the club with most champions trophies.
Anyone here have an explanation?
>>
>>
>>154327387
My impression is that German teams have strange names with numbers, weird ugly shirts and they change their colors too often, you don't even know what team they are from just by looking at them.
The logos have different colors than the shirts too, they look like random clubs you create in videogames, it's just not pretty.
Italy has a style and the teams respect who they are visually.
>>
>>
>>
>>154352835
I can see Freiburg, Frankfurt, and Hamburg being confusing
Freiburg's shirts often feature red despite it not being featured in the crest. It is a part of the city's crest, though
Frankfurt's city colors are red and white, same for the crest. But it featured black in the past and is an official club color. Frankfurt's traditional home shirt colors are red and black
Hamburg's club colors are white, blue, black (because of a specific naval signal flag and the colors of the founding clubs), but they also use red - for the pants at least. Hamburg as well has red-white as city colors, these are also the colors of the Hanseatic League of which Hamburg was a key member. Everyone here knows them as "red pants" and "Hanseatics" anyway
Apart from that, I don't see what you mean. Where do you get the ugly from? Because German clubs use stripes less often than Italian and Spanish clubs? And clubs basically never change colors or crests here apart from some minor tweaks, I hope you mean the shirt colors only. Frankfurt and Freiburg somewhat mix it up often. But everyone knows Hamburg play in white shirts with red pants and blue socks. Or that Stuttgart play in white shirts with a red chest ring. And so on
>>
>>154353274
I can give you more examples, Leverkussen, what's their home color? Black, black and red or just red? And Bayern? Only red? Red and white? Red, white and blue? And what type of blue? Not the one in their logo thats for sure. Borussia Mönchengladbach... it has no green in logo, but white and black horizontal stripes yet they dont wear those and feature green instead. And what about Werder Bremen? Its just weird. Even Borussia Dortmund, they respects yellow and black, but some times they have stripes, sometimes they dont.
I look at shirts in Kit History and Bundesliga teams are always a mess, you could say its cool but to me they innovate too much.
But Fiorentina is always purple, Roma is red, and Milan, Juve and Inter always have those stripes. Thats what I mean.
>>
Its impressive that Italian football was kinda brought down by corruption scandals and so on, while everyone knows all the other top leagues are basically just as corrupt or worse.
What is it about Italy that allows them to be both super corrupt but at the same time the only country with the balls to actually go through with massive upheavals from trying to fight it?
Or is it that much more unbelievably and easily demonstrably corrupt that you simply cant look the other way?
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>154353617
I have lived in this country long enough to realise that the rare, disheartening attempts to restore justice in every sphere of Italian society are nothing more than a fleeting twinge of conscience, a mere hiccup, which is quickly smothered by
>vanity
>misplaced popular sentiment
>various forms of envy
>mass distraction
>speculative social climbing at the expense of the innocent (see the case of journalist Enzo Tortora)
to a foreigner like you it may well appear to be civic pride, but the reality is quite different. sticking with Italian football specifically, as the most classic paradox of logic, if you wanted to find the most corrupt football club in the country you'd be better off searching for one that hasn't ever been prosecuted or demoted.
>>
File: 1747743889129217.jpg (40.7 KB)
40.7 KB JPG
>>154326448
I honestly believe pic related was the moment they stopped being a big club
>Berlusconi hyping up a new big name signing
>"I can't say much, but he's a Brazil international, plays in Spain"
>Fans hyped at the thought of Ronaldinho, but obviously there's other Brazilians in Spain
>"We're in talks with a big Spanish club, for this player, but we can't give too much away"
>Further hype it must be Ronaldinho
>Big day comes
>It's Emerson
Technically nothing he said was a lie but this was when actual big signings stopped
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>