“First, I would like to thank Marco Giampaolo and his staff sincerely for their efforts. He is a good man and a good coach. It’s not a decision taken lightly, a decision we all made together, putting our club above everything. I understand and share the frustration of our fans.
“Milan has suffered in recent years, and they fear the club’s difficulties will never end. We’re on a journey, and it’s not an easy path. We are finally facing realities which it would be more pleasant to ignore, but which can’t be ignored if we care about the club. We inherited a club that we had to save from insolvency, to avoid a certain relegation to ‘Serie D’, like other Italian clubs like Parma, Napoli, Fiorentina unfortunately suffered in the recent past.”
“We are working with professionalism, heart and soul, every day, to get Milan back on a positive path. We inherited massive financial breaches which led to our exclusion from European competitions, and debts which we had to clear. I don’t say lightly that the path is difficult: it is difficult, it will take some time and I do not pretend that we won’t make mistakes along the way.
“We will, but I want to assure our fans that we are absolutely determined in our goal to take the club back into a position where it is a modern and forward-looking football club, capable of competing at the top level in Europe again.
“We will make mistakes, but we will correct those mistakes honestly and continue on our path. You can see the scope of this ambition in ownership’s willingness to invest in a €1.2 billion for a brand new stadium and a structured regeneration project. Our ownership has its central aim to provide the literal foundation to increase the club’s ability to invest in players and compete again the world as a leading global club.”
“Zvonimir Boban, Paolo Maldini and Ricky Massara are here with me today making this announcement. They also know this path is difficult, but I have wanted good people here, who know football, know what it means to fight to be the best, and who love this club.
“We will find our way, and all the decisions we make, we make together. We have a squad that finished in last season minutes outside of our first goal, the participation in the UEFA Champions League. It was Milan’s best finish in the past six years, and we know that is not enough for this club.
“We have improved the squad with further investments in this summer (we are the sixth biggest net spenders in world football) and our fans will see those new players’ qualities in the weeks and months ahead. Despite a poor start, we currently sit four points from the UCL positions, and we have decided to make this decision now because we intend to fight for this goal.
“There is a long way to go and time to turn the ship. With that in mind, we have been decisive and brought a capable experienced coach who we believe can improve our performance and develop our young players. I am then happy to welcome Stefano Pioli to the club.”
