Associazione Calcio Milan, commonly referred to as
A.C. Milan and as just
Milan in Italy, is an Italian
professional
football club based in Milan
, Lombardy. The club was founded in 1899 by
English lace-maker
Herbert Kilpin,
Alfred Edwards, and four
other Englishmen and has since spent most of its history in the
top flight of
Italian football (only two years in
Serie B in the eighties).
The club have won 18 officially recognized
international titles,
tied with
Boca Juniors as having
the most in the
world. Milan have won four world titles, more than any other
club in the world; they have won the
Intercontinental Cup 3 times
and the
FIFA Club World Cup
once. Milan have also won the
European Cup on
seven
occasions; only nine-times champions
Real Madrid have exceeded this total. As
for Italian
Serie A titles, Milan are tied
with
Internazionale for
being the second most successful club with 17 league titles; only
Juventus have won more (27).
Other important titles won by Milan include the
European Super Cup, a record five times, and
the
Cup Winners' Cup twice.
Domestically, they have won the
Coppa
Italia five times, as well as five
Italian Super Cup. Milan have never
reached the
UEFA Cup final,
though reaching the semi-finals in 1972 and 2002, and this remains
the only major trophy for which they are eligible that they have
never won. Milan were founding members of the
G-14 group and the
European Club Association that was
formed following the first organisation's dissolution.
Milan's
home games are played at San
Siro
, also known as the Stadio Giuseppe
Meazza. The ground, which is shared with rivals
Internazionale, is the
largest in Italian football, with total capacity of 80,018.
History
The club
was founded as a cricket club in 1899 by British
expatriates
Alfred Edwards and
Herbert Kilpin, who came from the
British city of Nottingham
. In honor of its origins, the club has
retained the English spelling of its
city's
name, instead of changing it to the Italian
Milano (though
it was forced to do it during the
fascist
regime, like
Genoa and
Internazionale); it should be
noted that the Italian
pronunciation
is actually
MEE-lan, respecting Italian style disliking
stressing a word last syllable. Milan won their first Italian
championship title in
1901, and then again in
1906 and
1907.
In 1908, the club experienced a split caused by internal
disagreements over the signing of foreign players, which led to the
forming of another Milan-based team,
Internazionale. Following these
events, Milan did not manage to win a single domestic title until
1950–51. In 1963, they
ensured their first continental title, winning
European Cup beating
Benfica in the final. This success was repeated
in 1969, and followed by an
Intercontinental Cup title
the same year. Following retirement of
Gianni Rivera, Milan started a declining
period, during which they were involved in the
1980 Totonero scandal and were relegated to
Serie B as punishment, for the first time in
their history. The scandal was centred on a betting syndicate
paying players and officials to fix the outcome of matches. Milan
quickly returned back to
Serie A, but
returned to
Serie B only one year later as
they ended their
1981–82 Serie
A campaign in the relegation zone.
In 1986,
entrepreneur Silvio Berlusconi
acquired the club, and immediately invested a lot of money in the
team, appointing rising coach Arrigo
Sacchi at the helm of the rossoneri and signing a
Dutch
trio of
Ruud Gullit, Marco van Basten and Frank Rijkaard. This was the beginning
of the most successful time in the club's history, as Milan won
seven domestic titles, five
Champions League trophies, and three
Intercontinental Cups.
More recently, Milan were involved in the
2006 Serie A scandal where
five teams were accused of fixing matches by selecting favourable
referees. Even if police inquiry excluded any involvement of Milan
managers,
FIGC, led by
former Inter Vice President Guido Rossi, unilaterally decided it
had sufficient evidences to charge Milan Vice President
Adriano Galliani: as result, Milan were
initially punished with a 15 point deduction and consequently did
not qualify for the Champions League. An appeal saw their penalty
reduced to 8 points and allowed to retain their 2006–07 Champions
League participation, where they won the competition.
Players
Current squad
As of 2 November 2009, according to official site and Lega Calcio.
Out on loan
For all transfers and loans pertaining to A.C. Milan
for the current season, please see; Summer 2009
transfers.
Primavera and youth department
For the Primavera squad and the youth teams, see A.C. Milan Primavera.
Retired numbers
Notable players
Presidents and managers
Presidential history
Milan has had numerous presidents over the course of their history,
some of which have been the owners of the club while others have
been honorary presidents. Here is a complete list of them.
|
Name |
Years |
Alfred
Edwards |
1899–1909 |
Giannino Camperio |
1909 |
Piero Pirelli |
1909–1928 |
Luigi Ravasco |
1928–1930 |
Mario Bernazzoli |
1930–1933 |
Luigi Ravasco |
1933–1935 |
Pietro Annoni |
1935 |
Pietro Annoni
G. Lorenzini
Rino Valdameri |
1935–1936 |
|
|
|
Name |
Years |
Emilio Colombo |
1936–1939 |
Achille Invernizzi |
1939–1940 |
Umberto Trabattoni |
1940–1944 |
Antonio Busini |
1944–1945 |
Umberto Trabattoni |
1945–1954 |
Andrea Rizzoli |
1954–1963 |
Felice Riva |
1963–1965 |
Federico Sordillo |
1965–1966 |
Franco Carraro |
1967–1971 |
Federico Sordillo |
1971–1972 |
|
|
Name |
Years |
Albino Buticchi |
1972–1975 |
Bruno Pardi |
1975–1976 |
Vittorio Duina |
1976–1977 |
Felice Colombo |
1977–1980 |
Gaetano Morazzoni |
1980–1982 |
Giuseppe Farina |
1982–1986 |
Rosario Lo Verde |
1986 |
Silvio
Berlusconi |
1986–2004 |
Presidential Commission |
2004–2006 |
Silvio Berlusconi |
2006–2008 |
|
|
Managerial history
Below is a list of Milan coaches from 1900 until the present day.
Club statistics and records
Paolo Maldini presently holds both
records for number of total and
Serie A
appearances for Milan with a total of 1000 games played in total,
and 600 in the Serie A (as of 14 May 2007, not including playoff
matches), the latter being also an all-time Serie A record.
Milan's
all time top goalscorer is a Swede
, Gunnar Nordahl who, in 268 games, managed to
score 221 goals. Andriy
Shevchenko is in second place with 173 goals in 298 games for
the club, and is the highest scoring present squad member, followed
by
Filippo Inzaghi, who has scored
101 goals in 220 games.
The club hold the unique record of having gone a whole season
without losing a game during the
1991–92 season. In total, that
unbeaten streak lasted 58 games, starting with a 0-0 draw with
Parma on 26 May 1991 and ironically
ending with a 1–0 loss at home to
Parma
on 21 March 1993. This unbeaten streak is a
Serie A record and is the 3rd longest unbeaten run
in top flight European football. It comes in behind
Steaua Bucharest's record of 104
unbeaten games and
Celtic who went 68
games unbeaten.
Currently,
Milan along with Boca Juniors of
Argentina, have the most FIFA
recognised
international club titles in the world. Milan is also the
number five team in Europe in line with UEFA Co-Efficient ranking
system. This allows Milan to be in the number one spot for all
European draws, which allows Milan to avoid other highly rated
European teams in UEFA competitions.
Colours and badge
Throughout the entire history of the club, they have been
represented by the colours red and black. The colours were chosen
to represent the players' fiery ardour (red) and the opponents'
fear to challenge the team (black). Due to Milan's striped red and
black shirts, they have gained the nickname
rossoneri.
White shorts and black socks are worn as part of the home
kit.
Milan's away strip has always been completely white. The latter is
considered by both the fans and the club as their "lucky" strip in
Champions League finals, due to the fact that Milan won six finals
out of eight in an all white strip (losing only to
Ajax in 1995 and
Liverpool in 2005), while they only won one
out of three in their home strip. The third kit changes yearly and
is black with red trim for the current season, but it is rarely
used.
For many years, Milan's badge was just that of the
Flag of Milan, which was originally the flag
of
Saint Ambrose. Another nickname
derived from the club's colours is "
the
Devil". An image of a red devil was used as Milan's logo at one
point with a
Golden Star for
Sport Excellence located next to it; the star was awarded
to the club when they won 10 league titles.
Currently, the badge
represents the club colours and the flag of the Comune di Milano
, with
the acronym ACM at the top and the foundation year (1899)
at the bottom.
Stadium
The team's
current stadium is the 80,018 seat San Siro
, officially
known as Stadio Giuseppe Meazza after the former player
who represented both Milan and Internazionale.
The name
San
Siro
is taken from the district where it's
located. San Siro is the home ground of Milan by
1926, when it was privately built by the club.
The
stadium is shared with Internazionale from 1946, when
the other major Milanese
football club was accepted as joint tenant.
The stadium is well known for its fantastic atmosphere due to the
closeness of the stands to the pitch. There is the frequent use of
flares by the fans which often cause trouble.
On 19
December 2005, Milan vice-president and executive director Adriano Galliani announced that the team is
seriously working to move out from San Siro
. He said that Milan's new stadium will be
largely based on the Veltins-Arena
and following the standards of football stadiums in
the United States, Germany and Spain. It will likely be a
stadium for football purposes only (with no athletics track). The
new stadium is supposed to be named after a sponsor. It remains to
see if this plan will proceed or if this is just a ploy to force
the owners (Comune di Milano) to sell the stadium to Milan for a
nominal fee so as to proceed with extensive renovations. Rumours
have also surfaced of
Internazionale's intention to
also build a new stadium which may also affect this decision.
Supporters and rivalries
Milan is one of the most supported football clubs in Italy,
according to an August 2007 research by Italian newspaper
La Repubblica. Historically,
Milan was supported by the city's
working-class and
trade
unionists, a section of whom were migrants from
Southern Italy. On the other hand, crosstown
rivals
Internazionale
were mainly supported by the more prosperous and typically Milanese
middle-class.One of the oldest
ultras groups in all of Italian football,
Fossa
dei Leoni, originated in Milan. Currently the main ultras
group is
Brigate Rossonere and has been since the
mid-1970s. Politically, Milan ultras have never had any particular
preference, but the media have traditionally associated them with
the
left-wing, until recent times
under Berlusconi's presidency where they are considered somewhat
right-wing.
Genoa fans consider Milan a hated rival
after Genoa fan Vincenzo Spagnolo was tragically stabbed to death
by a Milan supporter in January 1995. Milan's main rivalry, though,
is with city neighbour Inter; both clubs meet in the
widely-anticipated
Derby della
Madonnina twice every Serie A season.
The name of the derby
refers to the Blessed Virgin
Mary, whose statue atop the Milan Cathedral
is one of the city's main attractions. The
match usually creates a lively atmosphere, with numerous (often
humorous or offensive) banners unfolded before the match.
Flares are commonly present, but they
also led to the abandonment of the second leg of the
2004-05 Champions League
quarter-final matchup between Milan and Inter on 12 April 2005,
after a flare thrown from the crowd by an Inter supporter struck
Milan keeper
Dida on the
shoulder.
Honours
Milan is one of the most successful clubs in Italy, having won a
total of 29 trophies, and the most winning team in the world for
international competitions won together with
Boca Juniors. with a record of 14 European
trophies and 4 World titles. Milan have earned the distinction of
being allowed to wear a
star
on their shirt representing the fact that they have won more than
10
scudetti. Added to this Milan are permanently allowed
to wear a
multiple-winner
badge on their shirt as they have won more than 5 European
Cups.
National titles
European titles
World titles
Unofficial titles
A.C. Milan as a company
According to
The
Football Money League published by consultants
Deloitte, in the 2005–06 season,
Milan was the fifth highest earning football club in the world with
an
estimated
revenue of €233.7 million. Currently, the club are also ranked
as the 6th
richest
football club in the world by
Forbes magazine, making them the richest in
Italian football.
The
Austrian
online betting company bwin.com are currently Milan's main shirt sponsors
after signing a four year deal at the start of the 2006–07
season. Previous to this deal, the German car manufacturer
Opel had sponsored Milan for 12 seasons. For
most of them,
Opel was displayed on the front of the
shirt, but in the 2003–04 and the 2005–06 seasons respectively,
Meriva and
Zafira (two cars from their range)
were displayed.
The current shirts are supplied by German sportswear manufacturer
Adidas, whose deal runs to the end of the
2017–18 season. The deal makes Adidas the official manufacturer of
all kits, training equipment and replica outfits. Prior to Adidas,
the Italian sports company
Lotto
produced Milan's sportswear.
On 14 January 2008, Milan and Adidas renewed the sponsorship
contract until 30 June 2018. According to the new contract, Adidas
will be responsible for 3 separate areas of sponsorship: the
sponsorship on the shirt, the merchandising and the distribution of
all non-football related Milan products.
Superleague Formula
Milan has a team in the new
Superleague Formula race car series
where teams are sponsored by football clubs.
Robert Doornbos, formerly driving for
Minardi and
Red
Bull Racing in the
Formula One World
Championship, drove for Milan in 2008.
Doornbos won his
first race for the team at Nürburgring,
Germany
. Giorgio
Pantano is driving for Milan in the
2009 season and he has also
won races for the team.
See also
References
External links