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| Full name | Associazione Calcio Milan SpA | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Nickname(s) | Rossoneri ("Red-blacks"), il Diavolo ("the Devil") | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Founded | December 16, 1899 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ground | San Siro, Milan, Italy (Capacity: 80,018) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Owner |  Silvio Berlusconi | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| President | vacant[1] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Head Coach | Carlo Ancelotti | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| League | Serie A | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2007-08 | Serie A, 5th | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Current season | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Associazione Calcio Milan, commonly referred to as AC Milan and as simply Milan in Italy, is an Italian professional football club based in Milan, Lombardy. The club was founded in 1899 and has since spent most of its history in the top flight of Italian football.
Milan has won 18 officially recognized international titles, tied with Boca Juniors as having the most in the world. The club have won what is today known as the UEFA Champions League on seven occasions; only Real Madrid have won it more times (9).[2] As far as Italian competitions are concerned, Milan is the second most successful club with 17 league titles; only Juventus have won more (27).[3] AC Milan have won four world titles, more than any other club in the world. They have won 3 times the Intercontinental Cup, and 1 time the FIFA Club World Cup.
Other important titles which Milan have won includes the European Super Cup five times, and the Cup Winners' Cup twice; however, they have never reached the UEFA Cup final (only two semi-finals). In Italy, they have won the Coppa Italia five times, as well as five Italian Super Cups. AC Milan is also one of the G-14’s founding members, a group that represented eighteen of the largest and most prestigious European football clubs before its disbandment.[4]
Their home games are played at San Siro, also known as the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza. The ground, which is shared with rivals Internazionale, is the largest in Italian football, with total capacity of 80,018.
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History
- Further information: History of A.C. Milan
The club was founded as a cricket club in 1899 by British expatriates Alfred Edwards and Herbert Kilpin, who came from the British city of Nottingham. In honor 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-lan, coming from the local dialect. AC Milan won their first Italian championship title in 1901, and then again in 1906 and 1907.
In 1908 the club experienced a split caused by internal disagreements over the signing of foreign players, which led to the forming of another Milan-based team, F.C. Internazionale Milano. Following these events, AC Milan did not manage to win a single domestic title until 1950-51. In 1963 they ensured their first continental title, winning European Cup beating S.L. Benfica in the final. This success was repeated in 1969, and followed by an Intercontinental Cup title the same year. Following retirement of Gianni Rivera, Milan started a declining period, during which they were involved in the 1980 Totonero scandal and were relegated to Serie B as punishment, for their first time in history. The scandal was centred on a betting syndicate paying players and officials to fix the outcome of matches. AC Milan quickly returned back to Serie A, but returned to Serie B only one year later as they ended in the relegation zone their 1981-82 Serie A campaign.
In 1986, entrepreneur Silvio Berlusconi acquired the club, and immediately invested a lot of money in the team, appointing rising coach Arrigo Sacchi at the helm of the rossoneri and signing a Dutch trio of Marco van Basten, Ruud Gullit and Frank Rijkaard. This was the beginning of the most successful time in the club's history, as AC Milan won seven domestic titles, five UEFA Champions League trophies, and three Intercontinental Cups.
More recently, Milan were involved in the 2006 Serie A scandal where five teams were accused of fixing matches by selecting favourable referees. Milan were initially punished with a 15 point deduction and consequently did not qualify for the Champions League. An appeal saw their penalty reduced to 8 points and allowed to retain their 2006-07 Champions League participation, where they won the competition.
Players
Current squad
As of January 13, 2009.[5]
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Out on loan
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For all transfers and loans pertaining to AC Milan for the current season, please see; Summer 2008 transfers.
