ac milan

A.C. Milan : History

2007-02-26T22:38:00.000-08:00

A.C. Milan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Associazione Calcio Milan is an Italian football club based in Milan. They play in red and black stripes, giving them the nickname Rossoneri ("red-blacks"). The team is known colloquially as Milan, while its crosstown rival is known simply as Inter. Milan is a three-times World Champion club.

One of the most successful clubs in the world, A.C. Milan has won the prestigious UEFA Champions League six times (second only to Real Madrid), the World Club crown (Intercontinental Cup) 3 times, the Serie A title 17 times (only rivals Juventus F.C. have more Scudetti) and the Coppa Italia (Italian Cup) five times. In total they have won 12 European trophies, sharing the record with Real Madrid. It is also one of the most supported football clubs in the world, and along with Juventus and Inter Milan are one of the most popular teams in Italy.

The club was founded in 1899 by Alfred Edwards, a British expatriate. In honour 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-lahn, even though the English one is the same as in the local dialect and many other dialects of Northern Italy.

Historically, AC Milan was supported by the city's working classes and trade unionists (who generally used to be immigrants from Southern Italy), while Inter, the other big club from the city, was mainly supported by the more prosperous and typically Milanese middle-class. However, in recent years, the clubs have seen a notable reversal in their political positions, since Milan is now owned by media magnate and past conservative Prime Minister of Italy Silvio Berlusconi, while Inter is now owned by a centre-left oil businessperson, Massimo Moratti. However, AC Milan's fans still tend to be mainly left-wing as opposed to Inter Milan fans who always have been traditionally right-wing.

A.C. MILAN : stadium

2007-01-26T22:39:00.001-08:00

The team's current stadium is the 85,700 seater San Siro, officially known as Stadio Giuseppe Meazza after the former player who represented both Milan and Inter. The name San Siro comes from the district where it's located. The stadium is shared with Inter Milan, the other major football club in Milan. The stadium is well known for its fantastic atmosphere due to the closeness of the stands to the pitch. Another feature of the stadium is the use of flares by the Milan fans which adds to the great atmosphere.

On 19 December 2005, AC Milan vice-president and executive director Adriano Galliani announced that the team is seriously working to move out from San Siro. He said that Milan's new stadium will be largely based on the Arena AufSchalke and following the standards of football stadia in the United States, Germany, and Spain. It will likely be a stadium for football purposes only (with no athletics track). The new stadium is supposed to be named after a sponsor. It remains to see if this plan will proceed or if this is just a ploy to force the owners (Comune di Milano) to sell the stadium to Milan for a nominal fee so as to proceed with extensive renovations. Rumours have also surfaced of Inter's intention to also build a new stadium which may also affect this decision.

ac milan players

2007-01-26T22:37:00.000-08:00

No.	Position	Player
1	GK	Dida
2	DF	Cafu
3	DF	Paolo Maldini (captain)
4	DF	Kakhaber Kaladze
5	DF	Alessandro Costacurta (vice-captain)
7	FW	Ricardo Oliveira
8	MF	Gennaro Ivan Gattuso
9	FW	Filippo Inzaghi
10	MF	Clarence Seedorf
11	FW	Alberto Gilardino
13	DF	Alessandro Nesta
15	FW	Marco Borriello
16	GK	Željko Kalac
17	DF	Dario Šimić

No.	Position	Player
18	DF	Marek Jankulovski
19	DF	Giuseppe Favalli
20	MF	Yoann Gourcuff
21	MF	Andrea Pirlo
22	MF	Kaká
23	MF	Massimo Ambrosini
24	DF	Leandro Grimi
25	DF	Daniele Bonera
26	GK	Marco Storari
27	MF	Serginho
29	GK	Valerio Fiori
32	MF	Cristian Brocchi
44	DF	Massimo Oddo
99	FW	Ronaldo

For recent transfers, see the "Transfer Deals" section of 2006-07 in Italian football or the list of Serie A transfers 2006-07.