Scaroni proclaims Elliott’s sale of Milan is ‘very distant’ and highlights importance of Champions League football | OneFootball

AC Milan president Paolo Scaroni has dismissed any notion that Elliott Management will look to sell the club in the short term, contrary to reports.

The American fund took over in 2018 when the Chinese ownership of Yonghong Li failed to repay loans used to buy the club, and when they took over few thought they would remain at the helm for a long time given their goal as a hedge fund is to sell assets for profit, and of course given the fact they acquired the club essentially in a non-direct way.

Elliott are certainly doing their bit to sort the club accounts – with the help of CEO Ivan Gazidis in his team – and the goal is to secure repeated appearances in the Champions League to boost revenue, as well as pushing forward the stadium project and cutting costs.

In fact, Milan closed the 2020-21 accounting with a loss of €96.4m -a marked improvement compared to that of the 2019-20 season when the total stood at €-194.6m. Scaroni spoke on the TV show GR Parliament and was asked about the economic condition of the Rossoneri, with Calciomercato.com relaying his comments.

“Things are going in the right direction. All this is done by paying attention to costs, but also through an increase in revenues. I don’t forget that just two years ago Milan had less than 200 million turnover,” he said.

“If we do not restore competitiveness to our teams, the sporting results can only be a consequence of this gap. Elliott are under no obligation to close the investment. They decide to do so when the conditions arise. I do not feel any orientation towards the sale, one day it will happen but it is a very distant day I think.”

Scaroni also spoke about the game against Liverpool at San Siro on Tuesday night and how big that is for the future of the club.

“For the moment things have gone well, apart from a few high-lows that we didn’t like. We are all focused on tomorrow’s game, which is very important for us. For us, the Champions League is fundamental. This remains the first objective for us. We have 400 million fans all over the world and they look more to the Champions League than to the league.”

READ MORE: Pioli gives possible reason for numerous muscle problems and insists club ‘are working hard on it’