AC Milan’s senior executives were at the Court of Arbitration for Sports on Thursday fighting to overturn an European ban for breaking UEFA’s financial fair play rules.
Managing director Marco Fassone, chief financial officer Valentina Montanari and a team of lawyers were set to lobby CAS to overturn the club’s Europa League ban for the 2018/2019 season.
The takeover was partly funded by a high-interest loan of 300 million euros ($348 million) from American hedge fund Elliott Management.
When Milan failed to pay their debt at the start of July, Elliott moved to take over, a process which is due to be ratified by club shareholders on July 21.
The Chinese owners spent more than 200 million euros on players last summer and that, combined with the terms of the Elliott loan, triggered the interest of UEFA.
At the end of June, UEFA ruled that Milan were in breach of “the break-even requirement.” That specifically bars clubs from taking on debt to fund day-to-day obligations such as wages or transfer fees. UEFA banned the club from its competitions.
Fassone has blamed the club’s woes on Berlusconi’s management.
The seven-time European champions are the biggest club to have been punished under the fair play rules.
