Daddy is coming home. Finally. Almost three weeks after the
unveiling of the new Casa Milan, Berlusconi is finally going to see it. Barbara
recently said that he would visit after the elections were over, which is not
at all shocking, as Milan has only ever been a platform for his politics.
Nevermind that he claims to love the club. Nevermind that this project is the
result of years of planning and a lot of money spent. Nevermind that his own
daughter and co-CEO was over this project. Nevermind that he might have to
abandon his dog’s website for a few hours to
see Milan’s new home. The important thing is that today, Papa Berlusconi is
finally making time out of his politically banned life of politics to visit the
home of the club he claims to love so much. And we should be grateful.
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| "Casa Milan? See if I've got a couple of hours in June... Gotta update Dudu's website, you know?" |
It would be easier to overlook his gross oversight if it
weren’t for the years of using Milan to achieve his own personal success. Or if
he didn’t tell us all of the time how much we should be grateful when he sells
our best players or how much he’s suffered so much more than us fans because
he’s spent his own money on the club (despite not actually having spent any money on the club.) Or so many other horrible, entitled, and
heartless things he’s said in the media. Or how many horrible decisions he’s
made that have impacted Milan so negatively.
He is such a bizarre enigma to me. Fellow fans always tell
me “We should be grateful to him for all he’s done for Milan.” Really? Do you
know how much he’s done against
Milan? How much better the club could have been run by someone else? How much
more success would have been possible if someone who wasn’t a convicted
criminal was the owner? How much Milan’s brand and reputation has suffered
abroad because of that man? Have you really never noticed that he only spends
money when it will benefit his politics? And how now that he’s supposed to be
banned from politics and serving community service for crimes he’s been
convicted of, he’s stopped spending on Milan? His oversight in visiting Milan’s
new house is just another example of how low on his priority list Milan
actually is.
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| One big happy family... except someone is missing.... |
But it must suck to be Barbara. She’s worked so hard to get
this project finished, and it’s beautiful and amazing. The owner of the company
she works for, who also happens to be her dad, can’t even find a couple of
hours to grace Casa Milan with his presence until now. She’s got an office
there for him, which she has personally decorated for him, and he’s not even seen
it. Her co-CEO did manage to make it there for opening day, but was openly
surprised at how good the museum was. Maybe because he had also not taken any time to
pay any attention to the extensive plans, despite, I’m sure, being in many
meetings where these things were discussed. She is not respected by her own
father, why would her co-CEO show her any kind of respect? It will be amazing
if she is allowed to do anything at Milan at all.
Berlusconi’s omission of this visit until now is just further
evidence not only of the dysfunction at the club, but of his lack of commitment
to it. It is also a slap in the face to the woman who seems to be the only one
in management who really cares, too. That even her own father cannot make it a
priority to be present for a landmark moment in the club’s history shows how
little power she wields at Milan and that he hasn’t made Milan a priority of
any kind as he promised he would when his political career finally was impacted
by his legal woes. But we, the fans are expected to revere him when he tells us
how much more he cares about the club than we do, even though more than 3,000
fans have already visited Casa Milan before he has. Papa don’t preach, it’s not
becoming to you at all.
This post inspired by the music of
NIN