Milan’s 2024/25 financial results covered a season that has to be considered as disappointing on the pitch, as they only finished eighth in the league, which was their lowest position for ten years, while they were defeated by Bologna in the Coppa Italia final.
On the plus side, they won the Supercoppa Italiana with a memorable comeback win against local rivals Inter, but they were eliminated in the Champions League knockout round by Feyenoord.
As a result of the club’s inconsistent form, head coach Paulo Fonseca was dismissed in December, when he was replaced by Sergio Conceicao, though he was in turn succeeded by the returning Max Allegri in May. In addition, Milan appointed the former Lazio player Igli Tare as sporting director.
This was the third set of accounts reported under the ownership of Gerry Cardinale’s RedBird Capital Partners, who purchased the club from Elliott Management in August 2022 in a €1.2bln deal, with Elliot reportedly providing a €560m loan to help RedBird complete the acquisition.
The American investment company already had some experience in the world of football via their controlling interest in French club Toulouse and an 11% stake in Fenway Sports Group, Liverpool’s owners.
Before last season’s collapse, Milan had done pretty well on the pitch recently, finishing no lower than fourth place for four consecutive seasons, including a league title in 2021/22.
However, their eighth place meant that the Rossoneri missed out on European qualification, which was not the way they wanted to celebrate their 125th anniversary.
However, the picture looked a lot better off the pitch, as Milan posted a pre-tax profit for the third year in a row, though this reduced slightly from €12m to €10m. This was especially impressive, given the indifferent sporting results.
Revenue rose €36m (9%) from (restated) €402m to €438m, which was a new club record, while profit on player sales increased by €10m (24%) from €44m to €55m.
This was offset by significant growth in operating expenses, which increased by €47m (11%) from €419m to €466m, while net interest payable surged from €1m to €6m.
Profit after tax was also down, falling from €4m to €3m, due to a €7m tax charge.
Milan’s revenue growth was driven by commercial, which rose €14m (8%) from €173m to €187m, and income from player loans and other player management, which more than tripled from €8m to €27m.
There was little change in the other revenue streams, as broadcasting increased by €2m (1%) from €152m to €154m, while match day was flat at €70m.
As a technical aside, this international definition of Milan’s €438m revenue is different to the one used in the club accounts, which also includes the €56m gain on player sales and €1m change in inventory.
That gives a total revenue of €495m, which was €45m (10%) higher than the prior year’s €450m, so was another all-time club high.
Investment in the squad led to increases in both wages, up €6m (3%) from €183m to €189m, and player amortisation, up €9m (12%) from €75m to €84m. In addition, player write-downs tripled from €3m to €9m.
However, the biggest increase was in other expenses, which shot up €25m (18%) from €143m to €168m. On the other hand, exceptional charges fell €3m from €14m to €11m.
Although Milan did well to once again post positive numbers, their €10m pre-tax profit is only the fifth highest of the Serie A 2024/25 results to date, behind Atalanta €59m, Inter €50m, Bologna €20m and Torino €17m.