Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: AC Milan meeting English Premier League club Manchester City in
Speaker 2: a preseason friendly at Yankee Stadium tomorrow afternoon. It's the
Speaker 2: latest push in the United States by the Italian football jats,
Speaker 2: a market they've seen significant growth in since being born
Speaker 2: by New York private equity firm Redbird Capital back in
Speaker 2: twenty twenty two. Please to say that joining us now
Speaker 2: to discuss is the AC Milan CEO Georgio Ferlani, George, Joe,
Speaker 2: Let's talk about this move. We've seen these friendlies before,
Speaker 2: AC Milan on tour playing other teams from the Premier
Speaker 2: League and elsewhere. It feels like we're getting closer to
Speaker 2: playing a regular season game in the United States of America. Georgia,
Speaker 2: Is that true? How close are we to an event
Speaker 2: like that taking place?
Speaker 1: Good morning, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 3: You're right. We do these tours in the summer regularly
Speaker 3: to play friendlies against other top teams. Look, there's a
Speaker 3: regulatory challenges in moving abroad and into a different market
Speaker 3: domestic league games, but we certainly think if you really
Speaker 3: want to develop a fan base and you really want
Speaker 3: to expand your business in the US. This would be
Speaker 3: a critical part. So we will be working with CITIA,
Speaker 3: our league, and the other regulatory bodies to allow us.
Speaker 2: You've mentioned the bodies you need to work with. Can
Speaker 2: you just build on that the obstacles for something like
Speaker 2: that to take place. Have you had a meeting with
Speaker 2: setting out the regulatory bodies about this already? Have you
Speaker 2: taken steps to kind of push this forward? How close
Speaker 2: are we to something like this?
Speaker 3: We certainly have discussed it with it then needs to
Speaker 3: be discussed also with WAIFA and with FIFA and the
Speaker 3: authorities here in the US. There have been attempts in
Speaker 3: the not so distant past to play games. La Liga
Speaker 3: tried to but it didn't work out. So we'll keep
Speaker 3: on absolutely important. Just in the same way that American
Speaker 3: leagues have expanded globally by the regular season games not
Speaker 3: just friendly outside of America, we need to do the
Speaker 3: same the other way around.
Speaker 2: It feels like ac Milan has become more American in
Speaker 2: the last year or so and maybe less Italian. The
Speaker 2: very fact that there wasn't a single ACMLAN player on
Speaker 2: the Italian roster of the Euros this summer, is that
Speaker 2: a financial decision or a sporting decision.
Speaker 3: Very good question. We've definitely become more American. We're owned
Speaker 3: by an American firm, which is Redbert Capital Partner, which
Speaker 3: is a leading investor in sports media and entertainment, and
Speaker 3: we work very closely with them. We've also become more
Speaker 3: American on the field, so we have I think you
Speaker 3: were saying two American players. Our decisions on who to
Speaker 3: field are entirely sporting. Uh, there is in a decision
Speaker 3: on the base of, you know, what passport the player has,
Speaker 3: but it's about how good the player is. Obviously, some
Speaker 3: players just by nature of being American. In our case
Speaker 3: we have two players, including Christian Voldovik, have a certain
Speaker 3: commercial appeal in the US, which is certainly helpful. But
Speaker 3: we don't drive sporting decisions by passport looks.
Speaker 1: We were talking Georgio about how the United States is
Speaker 1: a really expensive market, that there's a lot of money here,
Speaker 1: and so that's one reason why a lot of people
Speaker 1: want to come here is because they're dollars and a
Speaker 1: lot of eyeballs to come. They're also a lot of
Speaker 1: dollars coming from the Middle East, and you're going to
Speaker 1: be focused off facing off with man City, Georgio. How
Speaker 1: open are you to tapping seemingly endless appetite in the
Speaker 1: Middle East to own clubs in Europe.
Speaker 3: So we have at least in a different way, which
Speaker 3: is on the commercial side. So we've opened an office
Speaker 3: in Dubai, were the first European football club to open
Speaker 3: an office in Dubai. We've had a long standing fifteen
Speaker 3: plus year relationship with Emirates the airline. We have other
Speaker 3: commercial partners in the region, including the Kursoner Group, and
Speaker 3: so the way we've gone about it is not sort
Speaker 3: of via let's say equity injections, but rather via commercial partnerships.
Speaker 2: Georjo, I just want to squeeze in one final question
Speaker 2: and I'll ask this and said, as an ac Milan fan,
Speaker 2: a lifelong fan like yourself, we both remember the ac
Speaker 2: Milan of Capello and Saki of Barrazia Maldini. We've both
Speaker 2: been disappointed with the performance of the team over the
Speaker 2: last twenty years and the trajectory that we've been on.
Speaker 2: I remember when the club became a selling club, and
Speaker 2: I identified that summer when we've sold Ebra and we
Speaker 2: sold Tiago Silver to Paris Sanja Man it felt like
Speaker 2: that was a moment where ac Milan became a club
Speaker 2: that needed to sell players and couldn't buy that talent anymore.
Speaker 2: This summer we've got two big players, the left back
Speaker 2: Theo Hernandez and we've got the goalkeeper Mike Manyan. I
Speaker 2: want to understand whether that's two talents that you need
Speaker 2: to monetize to fund the the project or whether a
Speaker 2: Cimlan is back in a position where it can keep
Speaker 2: world class talent. Just what is the state apply?
Speaker 3: Yeah, So on the sporting side, our ambition is to
Speaker 3: fight for the title in Italy every year and to
Speaker 3: be competitive in the Champions League. Now we we do
Speaker 3: this while on the lets the other side running a
Speaker 3: business that is sustainable. So to give you some facts,
Speaker 3: we two years ago was a first year in which
Speaker 3: a cy Milan was profitable, first year in seventeen years
Speaker 3: and last year was the second year. And I don't
Speaker 3: think it's ever happened to a Cymlan to be profitable
Speaker 3: in two consecutive years. What that translates into is we're
Speaker 3: not forced to sell players because of capital shortage or
Speaker 3: cash flow issues. So you know, I picking one word
Speaker 3: is that we don't need to sell anyone. So, as
Speaker 3: a fan, I'm telling you you shouldn't be worried about that.
Speaker 2: Well, it's a fan. It's good to hear. Georgia. Good
Speaker 2: luck tomorrow and hopefully we can catch up soon. Georgia
Speaker 2: Falani there the ac Milan CEO