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Italy’s federal football prosecutor has dismissed a case into alleged irregularities over AC Milan’s 2022 sale by US hedge fund Elliott Management to New York private equity group RedBird.
The ruling on Friday by Italy’s supervisory authority FIGC, the country’s football federation, spares the club from any penalties in the upcoming Italian Serie A league and European Uefa Champions League tournament. It may separately weaken another probe into the sale led by Milan’s financial prosecutor.
FIGC and AC Milan confirmed the ruling, declining to comment further.
In March, Italian finance police officers raided the AC Milan headquarters and the private residence of its chief executive, Giorgio Furlani, to collect potential evidence supporting their allegations that RedBird was not the true owner of the club, despite Elliott’s sale to the private equity group.
The Milan prosecutors claimed in a search warrant that “the majority of the funds used to buy the club originate from an investment vehicle that does not belong to RedBird. The suspicion is that Elliott currently maintains effective control of the company.”
AC Milan, Elliott and RedBird rejected the allegations, while agreeing to fully co-operate with the investigators.
The football authorities’ investigation was triggered in March by the Milanese prosecutors’ case. Its investigation was based on the documents seized in the finance police raids.
New York-based RedBird, which was founded by former Goldman Sachs banker Gerry Cardinale, acquired AC Milan from Elliott two years ago for €1.2bn.
AC Milan has since returned to the top ranks of Italian and European football, while turning a profit for the first time in nearly two decades. The club’s valuation has increased to €1.44bn, according to data from Football Benchmark, up 35.5 per cent from a year ago.
On Thursday, AC Milan announced Paulo Fonseca as the club’s new coach. Speaking to journalists at the club’s training centre in Milanello, near Varese, former football star Zlatan Ibrahimović, who was recently appointed as RedBird’s senior adviser, said AC Milan’s priority under its new US owners was to make history “and to do so we must win trophies”.
AC Milan lost the Serie A title last month to Inter Milan. “I don’t accept losing, we must win and we will,” Ibrahimović said.
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