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AC Milan History
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Associazione Calcio Milan is an Italian football club based in Milan. They play in red and black stripes, giving them the nickname Rossoneri ("red-blacks"). The team is known colloquially as Milan, and are sometimes referred to as Il Diavoli (the devils). One of the most successful clubs in the world, A.C. Milan has won the prestigious UEFA Champions League (or equivalent) seven times, the World Club crown (Intercontinental Cup) 3 times, the European Super Cup four times and the Cup Winners Cup twice. In total they have won 13 European trophies (a record) and 16 international titles overall, tied for most titles with Boca Juniors. Milan also boasts domestic successes winning the Serie A title 17 times (only rivals Juventus F.C. have more Scudetti), the Coppa Italia (Italian Cup) five times and the Italian Super Cup a record five times. It is one of the most supported football clubs in the world, and along with Juventus and Inter are one of the most popular teams in Italy.
The club was founded as a cricket club in 1899 by Alfred Edwards, a British expatriate. In honour of its origins, the club has retained the English spelling of its city's name, instead of changing it to the Italian Milano (though it was forced to do it during the fascist regime, like Genoa and Inter); it should be noted that the Italian pronunciation is actually MEE-lahn, even though the English one is the same as in the local dialect and many other dialects of Northern Italy.
Historically, AC Milan was supported by the city's working class and trade unionists many of whom were migrants from the South of Italy. Inter, the other big club from the city was mainly supported by the more prosperous and typically Milanese middle-class. However, in recent years, the clubs have seen a notable reversal in their political positions, since Milan is now owned by media magnate and past conservative Prime Minister of Italy Silvio Berlusconi, while Inter is now owned by a centre-left oil businessperson, Massimo Moratti. However, AC Milan's fans still tend to be mainly left-wing as opposed to Inter Milan fans who always have been traditionally right-wing. In 1980 Milan were involved in the Totonero scandal and were relegated to Serie B as punishment. The scandal was centred on a betting syndicate paying players and officials to fix the outcome of matches. Milan were involved in the 2006 Serie A scandal where five teams were accused of fixing matches by selecting favourable referees. Milan were punished with a 15 point deduction, which was later reduced to 8 points on appeal, they were also removed from the champions league, but let back in after appeal.
Colours and badge
AC Milan's official colours have been red and black since its foundation. These colours were chosen to represent the fiery ardour that is part of the team members and the opponents' fear to challenge the team. The badge represents the club colours and the flag of the Comune di Milano (Municipality of Milan), with the acronym ACM at the top and the foundation year (1899) at the bottom.
The home jersey is red and black vertical striped, with white shorts and black socks. The away strip has always been completely white. The latter is considered by both the fans and the club as their "lucky" strip in Champions League finals, due to the fact that Milan won seven finals out of nine in an all white strip (losing only to Ajax in 1995 and Liverpool in 2005), while lost both the finals played in their home strip. The third kit changes yearly and is black with red trim for the current season, but it is rarely used. The Goalkeeper kit is either green or yellow shirt, black shorts and black socks.
The Austrian on-line betting company bwin are currently Milan's main jersey sponsors after signing a 4 year deal at the start of the 2006/2007 season. Previous to this deal, the German car manufacturer, Opel had sponsored Milan for 12 seasons. For most of them, Opel was displayed on the front of the jersey, but in the 2003-04 and the 2005-06 seasons respectively, Meriva and Zafira (two cars from their range) were displayed.
The current jerseys are supplied by German sportswear manufacturer Adidas, whose deal runs to the end of the 2007/2008 season. The deal makes Adidas the official manufacturer of all kits, training equipment and replica outfits. Prior to Adidas, the Italian sports company, Lotto produced Milan's sportswear.
Stadium
The team's current stadium is the 85,700 seat San Siro, officially known as Stadio Giuseppe Meazza after the former player who represented both Milan and Internazionale. The name San Siro is taken from the district where it's located. The stadium is shared with Inter, the other major football club in Milan. The stadium is well known for its fantastic atmosphere due to the closeness of the stands to the pitch. There is the frequent use of flares by the fans which often sometimes cause trouble.
On 19 December 2005, AC Milan vice-president and executive director Adriano Galliani announced that the team is seriously working to move out from San Siro. He said that Milan's new stadium will be largely based on the Veltins-Arena and following the standards of football stadiums in the United States, Germany and Spain. It will likely be a stadium for football purposes only (with no athletics track). The new stadium is supposed to be named after a sponsor. It remains to see if this plan will proceed or if this is just a ploy to force the owners (Comune di Milano) to sell the stadium to Milan for a nominal fee so as to proceed with extensive renovations. Rumours have also surfaced of Inter's intention to also build a new stadium which may also affect this decision.
Milanello
Milan’s training ground, Milanello, is located just outside the city of Milan, in the village of Varese (approx. 50 kilometres). It was built over two years from 1961 to 1963, and has been serving as a top-modern training lab ever since.
Silvio Berlusconi took over AC Milan in 1986, and that saw him reorganise and renew Milanello to meet the standards of professional football in the 80's. However, Milanello never stopped evolving, and to this day it is considered amongst the most hi-tech and efficient training grounds throughout the soccer world. Speculations are, that the wonders of the Milan Lab, make it possible for Milan's players to go on and on for ages, with the likes of ageing players like Maldini, Cafu and until recently Alessandro Costacurta still going strong within the squad.
The facility holds 46 rooms with space for 56 beds; President Silvio Berlusconi even has his own quarters. 14 permanent staff members are employed.
Milan Derby
Twice every season the Milan Derby or the Derby della Madonnina as it is known in Italian is played between Milan and Inter. These are seen as two of the most important derbies in football and are always highly anticipated events in the Italian sports calendar. Occasionally there have also been derbies in the Champions League, Coppa Italia, Super Coppa Italiana and the Birra Moretti Trophy. Currently, Milan lead Inter with 104 wins to 89 in total respectively. However Inter has a better record in Serie A with 59 wins to Milan's 56. The match usually creates a lively atmosphere within the San Siro with numerous (and often humorous) banners unfolded before the match which are specifically made each year for the match. The use of flares by the clubs ultras is also a frequent sight. However as much as this derby is usually played in a friendly atmosphere, the derby has also had its share of controversy, most notably the Champions League quarter final of 2004/2005 which was abandoned after Milan keeper Dida was struck by a flare thrown from the Inter supporters section.
source: wikipedia.org
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