What did the police find from the documents recovered in the Milan raid? Newcastle owners wanted to join AC, Cardinale owed hundreds of millions

Once again, Milan has the fun taken care of. At the behest of the Italian prosecutor’s office, police raided AC’s headquarters and found documents showing that Newcastle United’s owners were indeed interested in investing in the Milanese big club.

In August 2022, the US company Elliott Management sold its stake in AC Milan to RedBird Capital Partners, a firm headed by Gerry Cardinale. Needless to say, this firm is also based in the US. However, Italian prosecutors believe that Elliot continues to manage the club.

So it ordered a raid, which the police have recently successfully carried out. Unless proven otherwise, the Italian Football Federation may fine AC Milan or even remove an as yet unspecified number of points from the table.

The accusation is false, according to a statement from the Milanese big club. The official version is reportedly that AC was sold to RedBird on August 31, 2022. As of that date, Elliott no longer has any ownership stake or control over AC Milan.

However, the police found something else at the headquarters of the currently second unit of the Italian top flight. For it is no secret that Cardinale, a year and a half after taking over the club, has started looking for new investors interested in joining the club.

Based on earlier speculation, PIF was already ready to enter the club. And thus the current owners of English Newcastle, who would become minority shareholders of AC Milan.

PIF was to be the new co-owner of the AC Milan

The document entitled “AC Milan Investor Presentation” confirms these previous speculations of the Italian media. PIF was supposed to buy 41.7% of Milan’s shares by buying 80% of a $487.5 million loan from the club’s previous owner.

According to Italian media, RedBird bought the Milan club for €1.2 billion. Over 600 million was to be given by Cardinale from its own resources. For the rest (now reported to be €550 million) he got a loan from the former owner, Elliott Management.

This loan was to be repaid in three years at 7% interest. This means that Cardinale must repay the former owner around €665 million, including interest, by the end of 2025.

Negotiations involving the PIF are not part of the investigation, but as Gazzetta dello Sport explained, the stake to be acquired by Newcastle’s owners would be converted into equity, making the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund the second shareholder of Milan.

Source: La Gazzetta dello Sport, Football Italia