Berlusconi: The Most Successful Milan President in History

Earlier this week Max Allegri stated that his Milan will be aiming to retain the Scudetto next year in addition to making the latter stages of the Champions League. Allegri’s statement echo’s that of Andrea Galliani who has made it clear that the club will be focusing European football’s top prize.

Yet, dreams of European glory or even making the latter stages will not be realised unless a major signing is brought into the club. Of course, there is plenty of time for this to occur so it is not the intention here to start to call the alarm bells. Last year the club left it until the very last moment to make the signings of Robinho and Zlatan Ibrahimovic so there is good reason to believe that this will be the case again this year.

However, one year ago club President Silvio Berlusconi, also the Italian Prime Minister, was in a much better situation. Scandal has followed the PM ever since he launched his political career in the early 1990’s yet somehow he has always managed to keep his name clean, at least technically. But, now things seem to be catching up with our long serving club President. Public opinion is now heavily against him, he has lost power in key electorates across the country while charges currently against him look set to proceed to their conclusion which could result in serious punishment for the now 74 year old Berlusconi.

One charge that he Italian PM is fighting against is the allegation that he paid for sex with the Moroccan born cabaret dancer, Karima el Mahrough, who was just 17 years old at the time. If found guilty, he could face up to fifteen years in jail, though there is a small chance that he will be forced to serve the full length if found guilty. In addition to this charge, it is also alleged that Berlusconi abused his power in having Ruby, as she is commonly known as, released from jail for theft. With apparently 800 pages of evidence compiled by prosecutors that depict Berlusconi of hosting parties at his mansion near Milan with scores of women, showgirls and prostitutes alike it seems there is a reasonable chance that this time Berlusconi will not get out so clean.

Yet, of more concern for Milan is the result of the trial where Berlusconi’s investment company, Fininvest, was charged with corruption. The court ordered the company to pay €560 million in damages to rival conglomerate CIR after it was found that Berlusconi’s company bribed a judge in Rome, who was sentenced for corruption, to sanction the Fininvest takeover of Mondadori.

All this has ramifications for Milan. Firstly, and most obviously, with Berlusconi’s company being ordered to pay such a high sum in damages this may affect the amount Milan will have to spend on players this summer. Already, Galliani has already hinted this may be the case.

In addition to this concern, it is the ongoing legal problems that Berlusconi faces that could mean more financial penalties later down the track. Simultaneously, this could mean further financial problems for the club too.

Lastly, the all this does great damage to the club’s reputation and as Juventus has discovered in the last five years, such damage can be quite detrimental. The estimated commercial sales that Juventus have lost following Calciopoli is somewhere in excess of 200 million euros. This figure is not hard to believe considering Juventus were ranked third at the time in Deloitte’s Money League but today find themselves in tenth place. No doubt, much of this has been due to the damage to the club’s reputation.

Nevertheless, club will most likely continue its search for a star midfielder and hopefully by the time September comes around this player will have already arrived. Yet, if the club does not make this key signing, then no doubt the severe financial punishment handed to Fininvest will have had something to do with it.