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Normally, a Wednesday between games would be nothing of too much interest from an AC Milan perspective, but it has become ‘Cardinale day’.
Cardinale has been absent – or at the very least not publicly spotted – from Italy for months now. The last match that the Milan owner attended at San Siro was in September 2024, a 4-0 win over Venezia. Later in the year he would be at the Santiago Bernabeu for the win over Real Madrid. Since then, anonymity, barring the occasional speech at an event.
In April 2025, there was talk of Cardinale meeting with the management at Milanello. While it is obvious that he will remain in contact with those at Milan throughout the year, it is another thing to be on the ground seeing things for himself.
A usually-absent owner showing up at the training complex is normally the sign of a time of crisis, but in this sense there seems to be something a bit more positive behind Cardinale’s visit, especially with the team experiencing a much better season on the field.
North American whispers
The elephant in the room is all of the news that has circulated in recent days regarding potential changes at the very top of Milan, relating to the ownership situation and the Board of Directors currently in situ.
In case you haven’t been keeping up to date with things, it all revolves around the vendor loan that RedBird Capital Partners took out with Elliott Management when they bought the club from the fund after the Scudetto-winning season.
Cardinale purchased Milan in the summer of 2022, giving the club an enterprise value of €1.2bn. The equity value was €1.15bn: €600m was paid by RedBird to the Singer fund, while €550m was loaned (with the corresponding interest rate) by the seller to Cardinale.
A vendor loan is not uncommon practice in business. Think of it as a ‘buy now, pay over time’ type situation, to help the buying party spread whatever portion of the total payment value is deferred, and in some cases seek refinancing.
There is a deadline for this loan, though. In December 2024, it was confirmed that this deadline had been shifted backwards to 2028 as Cardinale and RedBird had managed to renegotiate the terms with Elliott and buy themselves a bit more time.
Time for what exactly? Well as it turns out, to find the right lender to enable them to pay off the remaining balance of €489m plus interest (there was another payment made at the time of the first refinancing).
As a bit of a sweetener for issuing the vendor loan, and also to give the fund a bit of additional security, there is still some Elliott influence on the board at Milan. They act as a bit of a guarantor, to make sure there is no reckless spending and that they will get their money back down the line.
Cardinale now seems to have acted to obtain full autonomy, by seeking out another refinancing. This time he is effectively shifting the debt to Manulife Comvest, an investment group based in Toronto, Canada.
RedBird consider the decision to separate from Elliott a natural one, as per reports, and they will benefit from a lower interest rate. They will final have full and proper control of the Rossoneri, allowing them to effectively do as they please.
This was perhaps not the way that many had predicted things would play out. Some speculators and insiders thought that external financing would come via the sale of a minority stake in the club, especially given that it is common knowledge investor invitations were circulated, above all in the Middle East.
The sale of a portion of Milan to another group – wherever their origin – seemed like an obvious way for RedBird to get the money to pay off Elliott. Then down the line they also had a potential exit strategy too, with the possibility of converting the minority stake to the full sale of a club with a rising enterprise value.
Speaking of which, it is quite easy to see why Milan would be an asset in demand. They have had three consecutive years of profitable accounts, something seen very rarely across the European scene for a club this big.
There is the stadium project, the potential NBA venture and a return to the Champions League looking more likely, with the revenues that unlocks. Then there is the growing brand value of a giant that plunged new depths in the mid-2010s, and the potential for Serie A’s growth as a league too.
What does all of this mean? All it really means is that RedBird Capital owe someone else the money rather than the previous owners of Milan, and a bit less overall because of it being borrowed at a less aggressive rate of interest.
In terms of the day-to-day running of the club, no major managerial changes are expected as per reports. There had been speculation about the exit of CEO Giorgio Furlani given his previous ties to Elliott, but he is now more of a RedBird man and will remain in his position for some continuity.
Massimo Calvelli, RedBird’s trusted advisor, is expected to join the club’s financial and economic director, having been officially on Milan’s Board of Directors since November. Calvelli will serve as a key liaison between the club and the owners.
The message from the top is therefore clear: no need to be alarmed, business as usual, and to keep rebuilding towards a more prosperous future.
Cardinale at Milanello
On Wednesday morning, something happened for the first time in 513 days: Gerry Cardinale was present at the AC Milan training ground for a series of greetings and meetings.
Indeed, as several sources are reporting, the RedBird No.1 met with Furlani, the men’s first team head coach Massimiliano Allegri, the sporting director Igli Tare and the Senior Advisor Zlatan Ibrahimovic to discuss the club’s performances.
Cardinale is in Milano as part of a series of previously scheduled European meetings, following his most recent stop-off in London. While in Europe he wanted to speak face-to-face with the management, to get a feel first-hand for how things have been going.
After meeting the team and the manager, Cardinale’s day continued at Casa Milan where he met with president Paolo Scaroni as well as others such as the Chief Financial Officer Stefano Cocirio and the Chief Revenue Officer Maikel Oettle.
He had lunch in the restaurant from around 13:30 CET, and then by 14:30 he had departed the club headquarters. Cardinale has also left Milano, and he is not expected to attend any games while in Italy, despite a big one being on the horizon against Roma on Sunday.
What might have been spoken about? It feels obvious that the aforementioned corporate situation will have been addressed, at least with the top brass at Milan. Most likely, it was reassurance from Cardinale that – despite all of the media attention – Comvest’s introduction is nothing to cause alarm.
When Scaroni is involved, the stadium project is never usually far from anyone’s lips. As a reminder, Foster & Partners and Manica are currently working on a design for the new home of Milan and Inter, with a full rendering expected to be completed within the next few months.
Moreover, there will likely have been some chat about extra-curricular things, at least when it comes to the football side. The European NBA league is something that the Rossoneri seem determined to get involved with, and there was an important meeting about this earlier in the week, so Cardinale will have likely conveyed updates.
Then there are things such as the TV rights issue, which the Italian-American entrepreneur is known to be particularly passionate about. He is a great proponent of reforming the way Serie A markets itself and its broadcast packages, as we outlined in a recent Substack piece.
Finally, the most interesting question, at least for the average fan: could it mean more transfer business? The safe answer is sadly probably not, despite the obvious need/want to add a central defender, and the size of the squad.
Milan are without any European revenues this season, but they are on course to access them again from 2026-27. So, we presume that the wait for more investment in the playing side will have to wait until the summer, leveraging against future earnings.
Besides, there was so much business done last winter (including changing head coach) that saw Milan go from eighth to eighth and lose the Coppa Italia, so big changes are not always good for stability. So far the team are doing well too, even if Allegri surely wouldn’t mind a bit more help.
Conclusion
So, what do we take from all of this? As said in the introduction, normally ‘unannounced’ visits from an owner are not good news because it suggests something has gone wrong that needs fixing from the very top level, or that big changes are afoot.
In this case though, we dare say it might all be positive. Elliott’s exit from the scene was inevitable at some point and there can at least be some clarity on the ticking time bomb of the vendor loan. The proprietor finally meeting the 2025-26 squad and staff cannot really be a bad thing either.
Above all, what it proves to us is that everything points towards RedBird Capital being here beyond the short-term. Any talk of an imminent exit always felt wide of the mark. There are things to be done to help Milan, and Cardinale seems intent on seeing them through.
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