By Editor • Nov 30th, 2008 • Category: Articles

AC Milan chief Adriano Galliani is no stranger to football corruption, but then again that is not uncommon in the crazy world of Italian football where match fixing - or at least allegations of it - have been a stain on the history of the modern Serie A.   An administrator, entrepreneur, executive call him whatever you want, the distinctive looking Italian is one of the main associates and spokesmen of the Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.    Always smiling or politically stern when required, immaculately dressed and statesman like Galliani was most recently heavily implicated in the now infamous 'Calciogate' or CalcioPoli investigations. Far from impeached or jailed though Galliani was banned from Italian football for a some five months but just like Berlusconi he finds himself again back involved at the top of the game despite previous and quite serious misdemeanor's.

Outwith the accusations of football sleaze and corruption the professional track record of Galliani is impressive. He is most famously known as being both the one time Chief Executive Officer of AC Milan as well as having a spell as President of Serie A. His time at the club has again co-incided with AC Milan achieving at the pinnacle of the game with Champions League success and club associations with noted brands such as Adidas and fashion brand Dolce & Gabbana. Today in 2008 Galliani is currently the highest ranked administrator of A.C. Milan after Berlusconi stepped down from being chairman since becoming the PM for a third, yet possibly not last time.

Galliani was apparently the main figurehead behind the signing of David Beckham and he made a telling point when David Beckham signed from LA Galaxy on loan during the MLS break.   With the flash bulb media conference over and Beckham posing in photographs for the world's press with black and red striped shirt in hands, the figurehead spoke of how the Milan club were not a just a club but a 'Media Company' as well.    With film star footballers such as Beckham, Maldini and Kaka at the club Milan have been at the pinnacle of the game both in terms of success and finance for many years but the same cannot be said for Manchester City.

Just like Manchester United the AC Milan 'brand' has grown over the years in tandem to Champions League success but the tale of success goes even further back than that. In short AC Milan has rightfully earned its place as a media company.   Whilst the sky blue of Manchester City has always been on the shoogly peg of uncertainty the famous black and red striped shirts have long had a hanger in the wordrobe of football success.   Both Deloitte and Forbes Wealth have assessed Milan and they are rated, aparently, as one of the richest clubs in the world in terms of revenue. But forget Manchester United's three Champions League wins and Liverpool's five as Milan have won the trophy seven times across a variety of eras including the 1960's, the 1980's, 1990's and the most recently in 2007. Put that together with being runners up four times and winning the Cup Winners Cup twice and you can see that with Milan, success has been a way of life.   Milan has righfully earned its place as a media company.

Milan's history has not always been a story of success. Implication in the Totonero betting scandel saw Milan relegated to Serie B in 1980 and a period of underachievment and decline set in. Milan went from from a club of greats such as Gianni Rivera to one of mediocrity and names like Joe Jordon, Luther Blissitt and Mark Hateley.  But inside those teams was the backbone of the modern era with players such as Franco Baresi. It was players such as Baresi and the incoming of Silvio Berlusconi, Arrigo Sacchi and and the improvement of the San Siro that the club reached its former heights once again. Names such as Van Basten, Gullit, Ancellotti and Rossi went on to carve an era of success for Milan only matched by fellow giants Ajax and Juventus.

Today one look at the AC Milan website sees names such as Dolce and Gabbana, Opel and Adidas adorn the club advertising and web communication tools. The website can be read in Portugeuse, Japanese, Chinese, Italian and English hinting both at the multi-national identity of the clubs players and the global outreach of the brand. The once famous Mediolanum sponsor has passed through Opel, Meriva and Zafira to the current sponsor Bwin. And the deal is not a gamble as whilst Manchester United's deal with AIG was always on the rocky road to ruin, Milan's deal is secure for 4 years. Similarly the deal with Adidas is equally lucrative until at least 2018. Off the field many of Milan's players are the faces of some of the fashion industry's most famous labels. Andrei Shevchenko went from the anonimity of a humble Ukraine upbringing to be was chosen as the face of Giorgio Armani and marrying American model Kristen Pazik along the way.

Kaka joined Milan in 2003 and has since gone onto become a Italian citizen; a sort of mild joint nationality. Early life injury and subsequent recovery saw a declaration of devout religiousness but this has not stopped Kaka becoming one of the richest players in the world with a reported salary of around 200,000 euros a week. Every goal Kaka scores meanwhile is greeted with a finger to the heavens and god sees some of his money as well, with Kaka sending some of his weekly wage packet to his local church in Sao Paulo. Alongside Zidane, Totti, Torres, Raul, Ronaldo and Beckham, Kaka is one of the world's superstar footballers and with Beckham now at Milan, all be it temporary, he is now on first name terms with Beckham. Posh Spice's other half meanwhile calls Kaka 'Ricky' a name by which he appears to be known amongst his colleagues with Kaka if you like being his 'stage' name.

So where then, I hear you ask, do Manchester City come into this? Well things have gone crazy in Manchester since new ownership became the fashion in the circus of the English Premiership and the blue half of Manchester went first Thai and now Arabian. Far from BYOB the Thai brought with him a barrow load of cash and new players by the dozen. The Thai Prime Minister 'Frank Sinatra' Thaksin Shinawatra brought hope and excitement to the blue half. Former England coach Sven Goran Erikkson was brought in to lead the club playing wise and a plethora of foreign talent came as well. The trouble was too many of those who came in were little more than average at least by Premiership standards. Exceptions to the rule were Elano and Martin Petrov who proved to be quality players performing at a consistant high level. Success still eluded Manchester City however and constant speculation surrounding the affairs of the Thai PM led to his departure.

Just prior to the commencement of the 2008-2009 season Manchester City went Arabian in its taste.   Essentially the club went up market and moved from Thai cuisine to four wives and a piano and new Abu Dhabi based owners. Far from Jonathon Ross though a PR disaster of epic proportions did not set in immediately and instead Manchester City themselves became the talk of the north. The timing of the takeover sparked various "deadline-day" rumours and hurried transfer bids such as an attempt to out-do Man Utd's protracted bid to sign Berbatov. Surprisingly as well despite it being a close shave, Brazilian Robinho was signed from Real Madrid for around £30 million under the noses of Chelsea. It was all very fake though with Manchester City hovering around mid-table and cup exits being the norm. The only exception was the UEFA cup where qualification was achieved for the last 32 of the trophy. As 2009 approached suddenly the name of Kaka cropped up and it was reported a bid of over £100 million had been made. For a while the deal looked as if it might happen or so at least the publicity surrounding the deal said but it eventually died despite an offer of a 500,000 euros a week salary being made to Kaka.

Former Nike executive Garry Cook came on board at Manchester City in May 2008 with his appointment as executive chairman of the club in May 2008, and there in lies one of the key problems. Not soon after his arrival, Manchester City went from being a average distinguised traditional football club to a 'project' and a 'journey' as Cook called it.    Just as Hughes job was to produce a winning team so Cook's job was to get Manchester City to the pinnacle of the global game but if you look at it there in questions of Cook start being raised already already.   If such an ambition was held why did Manchester City move from a world famous coach with a global track record in Sven Goran Erikkson to one as respectable yet clearly average as Mark Hughes?

Unlike AC Milan, Manchester City have never had a track record of success through whatever era. The blue half of Manchester will always be famous for players such as Summerbee, Franny Lee and Denis Law but even they made there names elsewhere.   Last winners of the Old First division as 1967 the club were in the old second division as recently as 2002 and the only semblance of European success came in 1970 with victory over Gornik Zabre in the now defunct ECWC.     Meanwhile, players such as Kaka, Shevchenko and Maldini have found a natural habitat at clubs like Milan just as fellow greats like Van Baston, Gullit and Rikjaard before them. Robinho may be at Manchester City Football Club today but the Football Club part of the club title would be as well being replaced with 'for the moment' such are the facts of life.     Lets face it, players like Robinho did not come to Manchester City for the football. Whilst Kaka has found his natural habitat at Milan, Robinho is like a 'fish out of water' at the City of Manchester Stadium. The Premiership is a jungle of opportunity but for the time being Manchester City are swinging from a loose rope.

The fact of the matter is that people like Gary Cook have went from executive sales with Nike to finding natural habitat at Premiership football clubs. Such a thing would have been unheard of whilst Man City played at Maine Road but today its the norm. Just like the people who lead our financial sector and banks on the rocky road to ruin and disaster so Manchester City find themselves in a no-mans land of underachievment and over inflated amibitions.   Cook is full of the empty vocabulary of modern football marketing jargon but it is all very ill-fitting at a club as small and a insignificant as Manchester City. At Milan such a rhetoric fits fashionably alongside brands such as Dolce & Gabbana, Maldini and Opel but this fails to be the case alongside Le Coq Sportif, Thomas Cook and Micah Richards.

The project that Gary Cook speaks so enthusiastically about is one that is doomed to failure and has been long before the Kaka soap opera started. Basically it is impossible to build a fooball team from the top downwards, but it is especially difficult when it is a club which has failure ingrained on its history as much as Manchester City. 

Whether Kaka was ever realistically ever going to sign for Manchester City we shall never know. If you are truly cynical then you could say that the whole episode was a Public relations stunt played out by a media company called AC Milan and its budding franchise Manchester City. Failing that maybe Cook had hoped to sign Kaka but thankfully he saw sense avoided the journet and stayed put to play for a real world class club rather than a 'project'.   The fact is for clubs like AC Milan success and lofty status is a matter of fact rather than delusional ambition as it is and always will be for for Manchester City. If you want to use jargon to sum the whole charade up its this; Manchester City is a journey rather than a football club and the road to hell rather than success is ahead.