Things have "gone from bad to worse" for Serie A side AC Milan, according to Mike Ozanian of FORBES. The Rossoneri lost $100M during the '14-15 season, or a quarter of the combined $398M lost by the 20 Serie A teams. For AC Milan, controlled by Silvio Berlusconi, last year’s "huge loss paints a particularly dire picture." The team ended '14 with a net loss of $102M, so with a second consecutive season of $100M losses, over the last 11 years ('05-15) "the club has accumulated net losses" of $504M. The Rossoneri "badly need an infusion of cash for a new stadium and to fund a competitive team." But for AC Milan fans the "prospects are not good." There will be no Champions League money for AC Milan this year, and "probably not next year, given the team is currently in sixth place," despite the fact that this season the club is paying $113M in salaries, the third-highest Serie A payroll behind Juventus and Roma. Berlusconi’s sale of "roughly half" of AC Milan to Thai financier BeeBee Taechaubol was supposed to give the team "deep pockets" but turned into a "debacle." Now Berlusconi is "pursuing Chinese investors." But with "so much time wasted dealing with Taechaubol, Berlusconi is now dealing from a position of weakness, meaning the value of the team is falling" (FORBES, 3/5).
