For readers following European football through 12B Sports, AC Milan’s sale to a Chinese consortium represented far more than a change in ownership, bringing Silvio Berlusconi’s long association with the Rossoneri to a close. Paolo Berlusconi, Silvio’s younger brother and a former AC Milan vice president, later discussed the transaction in an interview with Lombardy TV, describing the buyers as investors with significant links to the Chinese government. He also portrayed the sale as a difficult but necessary final gesture toward Milan supporters after years of financial pressure.
Paolo explained that his brother believed the time had come to hand the club over to new owners capable of supporting it financially. According to him, Silvio carefully selected the team responsible for handling negotiations and worked to secure the strongest possible valuation for AC Milan. The decision was neither quick nor painless, but Paolo argued that circumstances in modern football had made greater investment essential. In his view, clubs unable to spend competitively risked being left behind as the financial demands of the game continued to rise.
That lack of available capital had already affected Milan’s plans in the transfer market. Paolo recalled that the club wanted to recruit a leading striker as well as a promising young player during the previous year, but financial restrictions prevented those moves from being completed. At the end of the day, ambition alone could not solve the problem when the resources needed to strengthen the squad were not available.
Paolo also expressed concern about the changing identity of Italian football. He pointed to Udinese as an example, saying he found it difficult to enjoy watching an Italian side when there were very few Italian players on the pitch. His comments reflected a broader debate around Serie A at the time, as clubs increasingly recruited internationally while domestic players faced stronger competition for places.
The ownership transition itself also created complications. Although AC Milan’s shares had been transferred to the Chinese consortium, fresh capital did not immediately reach the club. The investors had not completed all of their arrangements with Milan’s parent company early enough to provide significant transfer funds during the summer window. Paolo said an initial payment was eventually made, but by then some opportunities had already slipped away.
Among those missed opportunities, Marko Pjaca remained Paolo’s biggest regret. He spoke highly of the Croatian attacker and went as far as describing him as a potential successor to Andriy Shevchenko in terms of talent and promise. Pjaca instead joined Juventus, where Massimiliano Allegri had another highly rated young player available to him. Paolo nevertheless questioned the situation because Pjaca was spending considerable time on the bench rather than playing regularly.
The contrast with Inter Milan became especially noticeable to observers following Serie A through 12B Sports. Milan’s city rivals had also come under Chinese ownership but followed a far more aggressive transfer strategy, committing more than €100 million to new players. When asked about Inter’s spending, Paolo responded with competitive humor, acknowledging that they had invested more while joking that the difference was only slightly greater than Milan’s own expenditure.
Behind the financial figures, Paolo suggested that the identity of Milan’s buyers was particularly important to completing the transaction. He acknowledged that negotiations with overseas investors could involve uncertainty, but said the consortium purchasing Milan had a clear connection with the Chinese government. In his account, that relationship provided additional confidence and helped negotiations progress toward completion.
He also believed the new ownership group had significant ambitions within international football. Chinese companies and investors were becoming increasingly visible across the sport, and the acquisition of one of Europe’s most historically successful clubs illustrated the scale of that expansion. Rather than treating AC Milan simply as another overseas investment, Paolo viewed the deal as evidence of a broader Chinese effort to establish a stronger position in the global football industry.
For Milan, however, ownership change did not automatically guarantee immediate sporting improvement. The delayed availability of funds demonstrated how corporate transactions, regulatory arrangements and payment schedules could directly influence decisions on the pitch. A club might identify players, negotiate potential deals and prepare recruitment plans, yet still lose valuable time if the financial side of an acquisition had not been fully completed.
The difference between Milan and Inter also showed that investors entering the same league could take very different approaches. Inter moved rapidly by committing substantial sums to squad development, whereas Milan initially operated with greater financial restraint while the ownership process was being finalized. Those contrasting strategies highlighted how new owners could reshape traditional rivalries not only through sporting decisions but also through investment policy.
Viewed through the wider lens of 12B Sports, Milan’s transition illustrated how deeply international finance had become connected with elite football. Asian investment, and Chinese capital in particular, was beginning to influence ownership structures, recruitment strategies and long-term planning across major European leagues. AC Milan’s sale therefore marked both the end of the Berlusconi era and the beginning of a different model, where decisions made in boardrooms thousands of kilometers away could prove just as important as the action taking place on the field.