A.C. Milan - History

History

The club was founded as a football and cricket club on December 16, 1899 by British expatriates Alfred Edwards and Herbert Kilpin, who came from the British city of Nottingham. In honor of its British origins, the club has retained the English spelling of the city's name, as opposed to the Italian spelling Milano which it was forced to bear under the fascist regime. Milan won its first Italian championship in 1901 and a further two in succession in 1906 and 1907.

In 1908, Milan experienced a split caused by internal disagreements over the signing of foreign players, which led to the forming of another Milan-based team, Internazionale. Following these events, Milan did not manage to win a single domestic title until 1950–51. The 1950s saw the club return to the top of Italian football, headed by the famous Gre-No-Li Swedish trio Gunnar Gren, Gunnar Nordahl and Nils Liedholm. In 1963, Milan won its first continental title by beating Benfica in the final of the European Cup. This success was repeated in 1969, and followed by an Intercontinental Cup title the same year. After the retirement of Gianni Rivera in 1979, Milan went into a period of decline, during which it was involved in the 1980 Totonero scandal and relegated to Serie B as punishment, for the first time in its history. The scandal was centered around a betting syndicate paying players and officials to fix the outcome of matches. Milan quickly returned to Serie A, but was again relegated to Serie B one year later as the team ended its 1981–82 campaign in third last place.

On February 20, 1986 entrepreneur Silvio Berlusconi acquired the club and saved it from bankruptcy investing vast amounts of money, appointing rising manager Arrigo Sacchi at the helm of the Rossoneri and signing the Dutch trio of Ruud Gullit, Marco van Basten and Frank Rijkaard. This was the beginning of arguably the most successful era in Milan's history, as they won eight domestic titles, one Coppa Italia, five Supercoppa Italiana, five Champions League trophies, five UEFA Super Cups, two Intercontinental Cups and one FIFA Club World Cup. That successful team has been voted the best club side of all time, in a global poll of experts conducted by World Soccer magazine. It had reached its peak in one Milan's most memorable matches of all time, the famous 4-0 win over F.C. Barcelona in the 1994 UEFA Champions League Final. In the 1998-99 season, after a two-year period of decline, Milan lifted its 16th championship in the club's centenary celebrations.

More recently, the club was involved in the 2006 Serie A scandal, nicknamed Calciopoli, where five teams were accused of fixing matches by selecting favorable referees. A police inquiry excluded any involvement of Milan managers, but FIGC unilaterally decided that it had sufficient evidence to charge Milan vice-president, Adriano Galliani. As a result, Milan was initially punished with a 15 point deduction and consequently did not qualify for the Champions League. An appeal saw that penalty reduced to eight points, which allowed the club to retain its 2006–07 Champions League participation. Milan subsequently won the competition, lifting the European Cup for the seventh time.

Following the aftermath of Calciopoli, local rivals Internazionale dominated Serie A, winning four Scudetti. However, with the help a strong squad boasting players such as Zlatan Ibrahimović, Robinho and Alexandre Pato joining many of the old-guard, Milan recaptured the Scudetto in the 2010-11 Serie A season, their first since the 2003-04 season, and 18th overall.