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

No.	Player	Position	AC Milan career		Notes
			Official debut	Last match
3	Paolo Maldini	Centre-back, Left-back	January 20, 1985	May 31, 2009	Shall be restored if either of his sons play professionally for the club.
6	Franco Baresi	Sweeper	April 23, 1978	June 1, 1997

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.

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

• Fossa dei Leoni
• Football in Italy
• European Cup and Champions League records and statistics
• UEFA Champions League finals

References

External links

• / / / / /