In
America, before the exorbitant and now routine use of credit cards, many retail
stores offered layaway plans. If you wanted to buy a new television, for
example, but couldn’t afford to pay for it all at once, you paid a down payment
and the store would hold that TV for you as you made payments. Once you had it
paid off, the TV was yours. Sino Europe Sports seem to be forcing that plan on
Milan, too. The only problem is not only are Fininvest keeping the club until
it is paid off, this layaway plan keeps the club in the back room in a box,
too. Not allowing anything to move forward, we have missed out on two transfer markets and negotiations toward this summer’s market are also tied up until the
sale is complete. And it begs the question: do Sino Europe Sports deserve to
even purchase the club?
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| How many times will Milan be fooled? |
After
another closing delay fell through ten days ago without a single Euro
transferred to Fininvest, Silvio, in his delusional wisdom, gave them another
chance to make another layaway payment within the week. That week was up on
Friday, but apparently Monday is just as good as Friday. Unless you want your new owners to be able to keep their word or something. So if the €100m comes
through, the new contract affords them until the end of the month to pay the
balance. Sino Europe Sports has had more new contracts and extensions than
Silvio has had lawsuits. So at least there will be the continuity of ownership
ignoring legal documents and regulations… if the deal goes through.
Speaking
of regulations, after the infinite contract was broken, Berlusconi got wise.
The media reported that Fininvest were seeking financial assurances this time
around. Which I think most of us assumed meant that Yonghong Li could prove
that he had the liquid assets to buy the club and the ability to make the
necessary investments listed on the contract signed in August.
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| Not only can they not come up with the money, they can't even take another picture |
However,
when those assurances came through last week, it turns out that they were just
to prove that the money came from his account. I guess because of all of the
accusations of Berlusconi just using this as a façade for money laundering. The
15 page booklet written in Chinese only gave the information to trace the money
back to Yonghong Li’s account. That’s it. So Silvio still doesn’t care if the
group has the money they need, or even if they exist, with reports that
investors pulling out at the last minute were why the most recent contract
collapsed. No, Silvio just wants out, and he wants out clean. He doesn’t care
what happens to the club or if the consortium can cover the future costs, let
alone if they are competent to run the club.
Even
layaway plans have consequences and fees when the customer can’t make payments
on time or at all. The main consequence is that you don’t get the merchandise. Which
is fine, because if you can’t pay for a TV, you may need to be working instead
of watching TV anyway. But if you can’t pay for a club, don’t make excuses
about Chinese regulations that no one else is talking about and no one else has
problems with. People suggest that it’s the size of the deal that is different.
But what if it’s the size of the lies?
There is still no proof that there are even
other investors in this deal. If Silvio really wants assurances to ease the
fans’ concerns, why hasn’t Fininvest hired a lawyer who specializes in Chinese
regulations to back up Yonghong Li’s claims that they are the problem? Sino
Europe Sports have obviously brainwashed Silvio with their lies, but why can’t
they produce some independent proof of these wacky international laws? Or at
the very least negotiate a contract length that allows the time constraints
necessary to avoid these imaginary laws? If you can’t pay for the club, there
should at least be some consequences for the buyer. Instead, the consequences
are on the fans and the club and its formerly illustrious reputation.
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| Maybe he'd make a better decision if he wasn't so easily distracted |
I call
BS. No other clubs are purchased on the layaway plan. A layaway plan that has
hurt the club that Yonghong Li claims to want to bring back to glory. Instead
of helping the club, he has set the club’s rebuilding back for over ten months
now. And that’s just the on the pitch impact. We have become the laughing stock
of the world, with douchebag journalists capitalizing on our gullible ways by
mocking our inability to close the deal even when we lose a heartbreaking match.
We are that joke. It’s more than embarrassing, it mocks every greatness this
club once had. As we talked about on the last podcast, Silvio should have just
cut the losses and walked away on March third at midnight when the last
contract expired. But he doesn’t have a plan to move forward, so he left this
storied club on the layaway plan.
This post inspired
by the music of Cake’s “The Distance”
Our next match is
Milan vs. Genoa
Saturday, March 18 •
20:45 CET (3:45pm EST*)
*Note the difference due to Daylight Savings Time change