Associazione Calcio – Popular Football Club of Milan

It is the short form of Associazione Calcio Milan which is an Italian football club in Milan, Lombardy. It was founded in 1899.

AC Milan has won many officially recognized international titles.

Their home games are played at San Siro which is also known as the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza. It has the capacity of 80,018.

The club have been represented by the colours red and black. Red represents the players’ fiery ardour and black represents the opponents’ fear to challenge the team.

Milan’s away strip is white. It is considered by both the fans and the club as their lucky strip in Champions League finals because Milan won six finals out of eight in white strip whereas they won one out of three in their red and black strip.

For many years, Milan’s badge had been the flag of Milan. Then an image of a red devil was used at one point with a Golden Star for Sport Excellence located next to it which was awarded to the club when they won 10 league titles. Today, the badge has the club colours and the flag of the Comune di Milano, with ACM at the top and the foundation year 1899 at the bottom.

• Name of the Club: Associazione Calcio Milan s.p.a
• Foundation Year: 1899
• Address: Via Filippo Turati 3, 20121 Milano
• Telephone: +39 0262281
• Fax: +39 026598876
• Stadium: San Siro
• Vice Executive President and Managing Director: Adriano Galliani
• Vice President: Paolo Berlusconi, Gianni Nardi
• Advisor: Pasquale Cannatelli, Leandro Cantamessa, Michele Carpinelli, Alfonso Cefaliello, Francesco Forneron Mondadori, Giancarlo Foscale, Livio Gironi, Paolo Ligresti
• Board of Audit: Francesco Vittadini, Francesco Antonio Giampaolo, Claudio Diamante, Achille Frattini, Giancarlo Povoleri, Antonio Marchesi
• Board Secretary: Rolando Vitrò
• Società di Revisione: Deloitte & Touche
• Sports General Manager: Ariedo Braida
• Technical Area Activities Manager: Leonardo De Araujo
• Organizational Manager: Umberto Gandini
• Technical Secretary: Mary Buscaglia
• Technical Secretary: Cristina Moschetta
• Communications Manager: Vittorio Mentana
• Vice Communications Manager: Giuseppe Sapienza
• Marketing Director and Vice Commercial Manager: Laura Masi
• Sales Manager: Mauro Tavola
• Stadium Manager: Daniela Gozzi
• C.F.O.: Alfonso Cefaliello
• Financial and Administrative Manager: Massimo Campioli
• Human Resources Manager: Raffaella Di Tondo
• Milanello Sports Centre Manager: Antore Peloso

It was 1899 when the club was founded in the name of Milan Cricket and Football club. The first official headquarters was the Fiaschetteria Toscana of Via Breschet. The first president of the club was Mr Edwards. He was partners with Herbert Kilpin. He is the one who chose the colours of the team.

In 1900, on 4th April the first official match was played vs. Torinese which was a defeat of 3-0. In 1901, 1906 and 1907 the Scudetto was won. This is when the cricket part was removed from the name of the team. The name AC Milan was the definite name of the team during the 1940s.

In 1950 and after, with the help of good players such as Liedhool, Gren and Nordahl the team started to succeed. Later on with other players like Schiaffino, Altafini, Rivera and the leader Nereo Rocco the team doubled and tripled its success.

On 22nd May 1963, Milan won the Champions Cup in London. However 1970s and especially 1980 were not good years for Milan. In 1980 the club was involved in the totonero scandal which was a scandal of match fixing in Italy in 1980 in Italian Seria A and Seria B and which caused the team to fell to Seria B. President Colombo was banned and he had to leave his position to Morazzoni who brought back the success of the team by carrying them up to Serie A again. However the success was short and it was relegated to the 14th place. Later on when Farina took the ownership, he took the team to Series A and helped them stay on top of the league.

In 1986, Silvio Berlusconi bought the club which was a turning point for the team. After then it became one of the most successful teams in the world.

The Rossoneri history is full of successful men who made great contributions to its developments such as the first British president Alfred Edwards, president Silvio Berlusconi, the coach Gipo Viani, Nereo Rocco, Nils Liedholm, Arrigo Sacchi, Fabio Capello, Alberto Zaccheroni, Fatih Terim and Carlo Ancelotti.

Between 1985 and 2007

On 24th March 1986 after Nils Liedholm, Silvio Berlusconi became Milan’s 21st president. He decided to bring back the success with transfers of new and foreign players such as Roberto Donadoni, Dario Bonetti, Giuseppe Galderisi, Daniele Massaro, Giovanni Galli, Mark Hateley and Ray Wilkins. During his time Milan managed to qualify for the UEFA Cup.

Arrigo Sacchi was the new coach between 1978 and 1989. During his time, the Dutch players Marco Van Basten and Ruud Gullit helped the team to enter a very successful period not only in Italy but also in the world.On 18th May 1988, Milan won its 11th league title at Napoli’s San Paolo stadium with a score of 3-2.

With the transfer of Frank Rijkaard and the two Dutch players in the team Gullit and Van Basten, another trio was formed such as the one in 1950s of Gren, Nordhal and Liedholm (Gre-No-Li) After then it was Milan’s rule in Europe. With Sacchi, they won a league title, two Champions Cups, two Intercontinental Cups, two European Super Cups and one Italian League Super Cup.

In 1992/93 season Fabio Capello who was the former Milan midfielder, replaced Sacchi. During him they won four league titles, three Italian League Super Cups, one Champions Cup and one European Super Cup.

Between 1986 and 1996 they were the best times of AC Milan. They were The Immortals and The Invincibles. However the late 90s were not as good as it was before but with the arrival of Albert Zaccheroni in 1999 Milan won its 16th league title during the club’s centenary celebrations.

Carlo Ancelotti, took over from Fatih Terim and the team won the Champions League, Italian Cup and the European Super Cup in 2003.

At the end of 2003-2004 season they has the 17th title by winning the Italian League Super Cup on 21st August. 2004-2005 season was not so good but 2006-2007 season was excellent in effort, courage and success.

On 31st August 2007 the European Super Cup was won in Montecarlo against Seville. In Yokohama Milan was crowned as the most successful club in the world.

• 1990 Intercontinental Cup: On December 9, 1990 – Olympic Stadium, Tokyo. Milan (3) vs Olimpia Asunciòn (0)
• 1991/92 Title: Fabio Capello’s first season in charge when Milan was crowned Winter Champions. It is in this year that the term ‘The Invincibles’ is used to describe the team. The squad was Demetrio Albertini, Carlo Ancelotti, Francesco Antonioli, Franco Baresi, Angelo Carbone, Giovanni Cornacchini, Alessandro Costacurta, Roberto Donadoni, Alberigo Evani, Diego Fuser, Filippo Galli, Enzo Gambaro, Ruud Gullit, Paolo Maldini, Daniele Massaro, Franklin Rijkaard, Sebastiano Rossi, Aldo Serena, Marco Simone, Mauro Tassotti, Marco Van Basten. The coach was Fabio Capello.
• 1992/93 Title: Milan finish the season as champions for the 13th time. The squad was Demetrio Albertini, Francesco Antonioli, Franco Baresi, Zvonimir Boban, Alessandro Costacurta, Fernando De Napoli, Roberto Donadoni, Stefano Eranio, Alberigo Evani, Filippo Galli, Enzo Gambaro, Ruud Gullit, Gianluigi Lentini, Paolo Maldini, Daniele Massaro, Stefano Nava, Jean Pierre Papin, Franklin Rijkaard, Sebastiano Rossi, Dejan Savicevic, Aldo Serena, Marco Simone, Mauro Tassotti, Marco Van Basten.The coach was Fabio Capello.
• 1992 League Super Cup: Milan (2) vs Parma (1)
• 1993/94 Title: Fabio Capello is still in charge and the goalkeeper Sebastiano Rossi goes a record 928 minutes without conceding a goal. The squad was Demetrio Albertini, Franco Baresi, Zvonimir Boban, Angelo Carbone, Alessandro Costacurta, Francesco Cozza, Fernando De Napoli, Marcel Desailly, Roberto Donadoni, Stefano Eranio, Filippo Galli, Mario Ielpo, Brian Laudrup, Gianluigi Lentini, Paolo Maldini, Daniele Massaro, Stefano Nava, Alessandro Orlando, Christian Panucci, Jean Pierre Papin, Florin Raducioiu, Sebastiano Rossi, Dejan Savicevic, Marco Simone, Mauro Tassotti.The coach was Fabio Capello.
• 1993/94 Champions Cup: On May 18, 1994 – Olympic Stadium Atene. Milan (4) vs Barcellona (0)
• 1993 League Super Cup: Milan (1) vs Torino (0)
• 1994 European Super Cup: On Final – First leg on February 1, 1995 – Highbury Stadium, London. Arsenal (0) vs Milan (0). On Final – Second leg on February 8, 1995 – San Siro Stadium, Milan. Milan (2) vs Arsenal (0)
• 1994 League Super Cup: Milan (1) vs Sampdoria (1) (5-4 after penalties)
• 1995/96 Title: The 15th title was not guaranteed until April 28 in a 3-1 win over Fiorentina. The squad was Demetrio Albertini, Massimo Ambrosini, Roberto Baggio, Franco Baresi, Zvonimir Boban, Francesco Coco, Alessandro Costacurta, Marcel Desailly, Paolo Di Canio, Roberto Donadoni, Stefano Eranio, Jorge Paulo Futre, Filippo Galli, Mario Ielpo, Gianluigi Lentini, Tomas Locatelli, Paolo Maldini, Christian Panucci, Sebastiano Rossi, Dejan Savicevic, Marco Simone, Gianluca Sordo, Mauro Tassotti, Patrick Vieira, George Weah.The coach was Fabio Capello.
• 1998/99 Title: Alberto Zaccheroni is in charge for his first season to win their 16th league title in the same season as the club’s centenary celebrations. The squad was Christian Abbiati, Demetrio Albertini, Mohammed Datti Aliyu, Massimo Ambrosini, Roberto Fabian Ayala, Ibrahim Ba, Oliver Bierhoff, Zvonimir Boban, Francesco Coco, Alessandro Costacurta, André Cruz, Roberto Donadoni, Maurizio Ganz, Federico Giunti, Andres Guglielminpietro, Thomas Helveg, Jens Lehmann, Leonardo, Giampiero Maini, Paolo Maldini, Domenico Morfeo, Bruno N’Gotty, Sebastiano Rossi, Luigi Sala, George Weah, Christian Ziege.The coach was Alberto Zaccheroni.
• 2002/03 Italian Cup: On Final – First leg on May 20, 2003 – Olympic Stadium Rome. Roma (1) vs Milan (4). On Final – Secon leg on May 31,
• 2003 – San Siro stadium, Milan: Milan (2) vs Roma (2)
• 2002/03 UEFA Champions Cup: On May 28, 2003 – Old Trafford Stadium, Manchester. Juventus (0) vs Milan (0) (2-3 after penalties)
• 2003/04 Title: The squad is strengthened by a new rising star of the world game, Ricky Kakà. The squad was Christian Abbiati, Massimo Ambrosini, Marco Borriello, Cristian Brocchi, Cafu, Alessandro Costacurta, Dida, Valerio Fiori, Gennaro Gattuso, Filippo Inzaghi, Kaká, Kakha Kaladze, Martin Laursen, Paolo Maldini, Alessandro Nesta, Giuseppe Pancaro, Andrea Pirlo, Fernando Redondo, Rivaldo, Rui Costa, Clarence Seedorf, Serginho, Andriy Shevchenko, Dario Simic, Jon Dahl Tomasson.The coach was Carlo Ancelotti.
• 2003 European Super Cup: On August 29, 2003 – Louis II Stadium, Monte Carlo. Milan (1) vs Porto (0)
• 2004 League Super Cup: Milan (3) vs Lazio (0)
• 2006/07 UEFA Champions Cup: On May 23, 2007 – Stadium Louis Spyros OAKA, Athens. Milan (2) vs Liverpool (1)
• 2007 UEFA Super Cup: On August 31st 2007, Montecarlo, Stadium Louis II. Milan (3) vs Sivilglia (1)
• 2007 Fifa Club World Cup: On December 16, 2007 – International Stadium, Yokohama. Boca Junior (2) vs Milan (4)