AC Milan- The Great Fall

Intern: Sooraj Kashyap

Last season, Real Madrid was crowned the Champions of Europe for the 10^th time in the club’s history, the first club to achieve the feat. It was also their first in almost 12 years, Mr. Ancelotti’s 5^th overall and 3^rd as a manager. The previous two of them were with the Italian and European giants AC Milan. Here, I am not going to talk about Ancelotti and his dream team of AC Milan when they ruled Europe for a very long time, I am here going to write about how this once European powerhouse within a span of 8 years has fallen on flat on its face. The Great Fall, from regular participants in the Champions’ League to not even qualifying for any European Tournament for the past 2 years and probably for the 3^rd year running.
 

           
The second most successful European side with 7 Champions League titles to its names and now a mid table side in the Italian Serie A, the reasons for this doom.

1. Berlusconi’s mismanagement of the club- 

Most of this pathetic situation for the club is down to due to the ignorance of the ex-Italian Prime Minister Mr. Berlusconi to look into the administration matters properly. Berlusconi sacked managers at will and refused to invest in bringing in imports to strengthen the squad. He didn’t look very keen in putting efforts to renew and increase the salary of his then existing cream of players. Berlusconi went into financial problems with his extravagant business ventures gradually pulling the club into heavy debts. Though Berlusconi is looking to save the club by selling a fair share of stakes, but, any billionaire willing to pay off net debts of $180-200 million is highly improbable.

2. No proper replacements for legends-
 

The departure of legends like Nesta, Maldini, Zambrotta, Gattuso, Pirlo, Kaka, Dida, Cafu, Shevchenko, etc. These legends are impossible to replace, but, trying to fill in these shoes were players like Abate, Thiago Silva, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Ronaldinho, Beckham, etc. Though Ronaldinho and Beckham were past their prime but this side could at least be regular contenders for the Italian Championship and feature in the Champions’ League. But, even these players decided to leave, Zlatan and Silva to the cash rich PSG under the careful watch of the ex-Milan manager and present Sporting Director of PSG Leonardo; Ronaldinho and Beckham to the South American(Brazil) and North American(USA)  leagues respectively. The team needed rebuilding and the new recruits were either from the youth academy or free transfer deals. But, the situation went from bad to worse.

3. Outrageous managerial sackings-
 

After Carlo Ancelotti, there was an entry and exit of managers at the worst possible time. In the span of 6 years there were 5 managers who were at the hot seat, all of them were playing with fire by trying to change the way Milan play, and they were also the victim of impatience shown by the board. The only person of these 5 managers who looked like standing up to the challenge was Massimiliano Allegri who with a fading team won the Scudetto once and came 2^nd and 3^rd respectively, but due to a poor start to his 4^th season, his contract was terminated by New Year.

4. Falling standards of the Serie A

The Serie A used to be the best league in the world, but with time, due to many reasons such as the Calciopoli Scandal in 2006, the financial crisis of the teams in Italy, the preference of players to go to the other leagues, lack of sponsorship, negligible television coverage of the Serie A is also a reason though comparatively small to the decline of AC Milan.

5. Poor infrastructure-
 

There is no doubts regarding the fact that San Siro is one of football’s most iconic stadiums, just like Estadio Bernabeau, Nou Camp, Old Trafford. But, with time, all these stadiums went extensive renovation and rebuilding. Some big European clubs like Arsenal and Bayern Munich decided to move to a new stadium. However, the San Siro is the same old stadium which it was 30 years back. Infrastructure is important for a club, as it brings in more investment and draws in more fans. There were plans of a renovation but none of them substantiated. 

The football fans around the world love to see Italian style football, if Brazilians showed the world how to attack, Italians gave the world the art of defending. AC Milan have always been a core part of Italy’s history and culture, all we can expect is the words, “Forza Italia!” and “Forza Milan” can be heard once again soon.