Milan faces the prospect of encountering two potentially severe sanctions subsequent to an investigation conducted by the Milan Prosecutor’s Office regarding Giorgio Furlani and Ivan Gazidis. On Tuesday afternoon, the Guardia di Finanza, Italy’s financial police, executed a search at the club’s Casa Milan headquarters as part of an inquiry into Elliott Management’s transfer of ownership of the Rossoneri to RedBird in August 2022. CEO Furlani and his predecessor Gazidis are the focal points of this investigation.
The accusations revolve around the potential obstruction of the supervisory activities of the Italian Football Federation (FIGC), with scrutiny aimed at verifying whether Elliott genuinely ceded control of the club to RedBird in 2022, as reported by la Gazzetta dello Sport.
Several provisions of the Code of Sports Justice could have been infringed upon in this transaction, spanning from Article 32, Paragraph 5, which concerns communication and filing obligations concerning club control, to Article 31, Paragraph 1, addressing the failure to produce, alter, or materially or ideologically falsify documents requested by sports justice bodies.
Consequences for violating these sections of the Code of Sports Justice range from fines to potential point deductions, granting the prosecutors discretionary powers.
Furthermore, Milan might face penalties from UEFA, given that Elliott holds significant shares in Ligue 1 club Lille. Consequently, there exists a possibility that Article 5 of UEFA regulations concerning the integrity of competitions and ownership stakes was breached. Notably, Lille failed to qualify for European competitions last season and only participated in the Conference League this term, making it challenging to envision any sanctions arising from this front.
However, UEFA could contend that Article 4 of the regulations, pertaining to admission procedures and criteria, was violated. This could result in Milan’s exclusion from UEFA competitions, although much hinges on the evolution of this intricate legal matter.