Cardinale: “I will never sell AC Milan. I want to do what Berlusconi did. No one will be able to tell me I can’t afford a footballer.”

Gerry Cardinale has given a lengthy interview to La Gazzetta dello Sport. The AC Milan owner and head of RedBird announced major developments for the club. Here is what he said.

"We have launched the new holding company, Milan Sports & Entertainment. The driving force behind operations like this is to give Milan the financial power they need to compete in the transfer market and secure the best players in the world. I will transform the club's financial profile with the resources that will come from the stadium, the arena in San Donato and the other activities we are working on, such as NBA Europe."

"I am doing everything I can to make sure that, when we want a player, no one can tell me: 'You can't sign him because you can't afford him.' At present, only Premier League clubs can invest such sums and secure top players. If I want to take Milan back to the top in European competitions, not just in Italy, we need to understand how we can compete with the biggest clubs in the world."

"My commitment to Milan is long-term. I will never sell Milan. Never. And this is a project to get them winning again. I am not willing to accept it taking a long time to achieve that. I want to do it as soon as possible. We will see how quickly... My aim is to win Serie A titles consistently and, of course, return to the Champions League. Milan Sports & Entertainment provides the foundations to make all this possible."

"This is the legacy we will leave in Milan. The stadium, of course, represents an enormous legacy that will transform our financial profile, but there is also the project for the site in San Donato and the rest. If we want Milan to be great again, we need to close the revenue gap with Premier League clubs. When I bought the club four years ago, I used the expression 'Berlusconi 2.0' and no one understood what I meant. Perhaps people are beginning to see it now."

"Everyone thought I was making an arrogant, egocentric comparison between myself and Berlusconi, but that was my objective. What I was trying to explain was that, just as Berlusconi transformed Milan and Serie A along with them, we want, through our ownership, to be able to take the club into the new era we are living in. And we need to do it the way Berlusconi did: in a new way. I am used to working in a certain way because that is how I operate, at the highest level worldwide and in America."

"My ambition is to compete with the best clubs in the world. I want to do that thanks to my global vision of sport and entertainment. There are not many multi-sport ownership platforms in the world that also own some of their own facilities, and we want to add Milan to that list. To compete with them and then be better."

"A summer tour in Australia or the United States? We have already discussed it with Amorim and I will only tell you that, if we play friendlies abroad next summer, they will be in the United States. If we play them... We have not decided yet, and the choice will be Ruben's, based on what is best for the team: playing friendlies abroad must benefit the group, not earn the club a couple of million. Those two million will no longer be our objective, as they were under the previous management. That will not happen again under this ownership. Everything we organise in terms of friendlies will be carefully considered with our manager. Every trip. And we will not take part in tours organised by others. We put our players first. We want to help them prepare well so they can win. That is our objective, and we aim to achieve it as soon as possible."