AC Milan ultras call for Galliani´s head over ´blatant mockery´ of fans

AC Milan ultras have called for new owners to take charge or CEO Adriano Galliani to be sacked as a result of “indefensible” management of the club.

A run of just one win in nine Serie A matches has seen Milan drop to seventh, a point below Sassuolo, who occupy the final Europa League spot.

Should they remain outside the top six and fail to win the Coppa Italia final against Juventus, the seven-time European champions will be without continental football for the third season in a row.

The Curva Sud fan group are incensed, however, that the club has arranged a pre-season friendly with Bayern Munich in July, at a time when they could potentially be involved in Europa League qualifying matches.

Following what they consider to be a commitment to avoid finishing sixth – thereby allowing for the potentially lucrative friendly match – they have demanded the departure of CEO Galliani, or for a satisfactory conclusion to president Silvio Berlusconi’s protracted efforts to sell the club.

“Wednesday July 27, Soldier Field Chicago, Bayern Munich-Milan,” the ultras’ statement begins. “A normal friendly, a game like so many played over the summer, with a lot of tickets already on sale.

“But then, looking at the calendar for the Europa League, coming sixth in the Italian League – the place that we are ‘chasing’ – would mean being involved in a preliminary round on that very date.

“Is this a gross error on the part of a club in disarray? Or can we assume the club has already decided to lose sixth, to go on tour in the USA?

“It seems clear to us that the second option is widely supported by the ridiculous results against teams lower than us in both squad and prestige.

“Our only lifeline is the final of the Coppa Italia, we’ve reached the final after many years, but the final was only the minimum goal given the path we had.

“The plan is to get to the Europa League only through the Coppa Italia and, if not, to renounce European competition for another year to make room for profitable but useless summer trophies.

“This is about the worst thing that can happen in football and in the history of Milan, as well as being a blatant mockery of the fans.

“The stadium is now filled only by children and football schools, who don’t pay and serve only to allow the club to fill the empty seats that years of mismanagement have created.

“Once again, the losers are those who have Milan in their heart and soul, ruined by this leadership and their nonsense. A leadership which is hiding behind repressive laws which don’t allow any form of protest, or contact with the players, coaches or other fans.

“The laws don’t allow any protest banners, under threat of more legal action. That’s what the stadium has become and we’re being gagged. That’s why we continue to fight on the fronts where we still can.

“They are ridiculing the name and the history of Milan. We can’t put up with this rubbish anymore. It’s not just limited to the Curva, every Milan fan has now understood what they’re doing, and this is just the latest in a series of events which have opened the eyes of even the last bastions of those defending the indefensible.

“Get rid of Galliani or sell Milan!”