As the weeks pass the threat seems to get more and more serious: AC Milan are at risk of missing out on the Champions League.
As La Gazzetta dello Sport report, despite many shortcomings and suffocated by an inflation of problems to solve, Milan had not lost in a month and a half (December 6 against Atalanta) prior to the defeat against Juventus.
The second half at the Allianz Stadium crumbled the eight-game run, exposing all the limits – character, quality and in the construction of the squad – of a team that now finds itself sunk to eighth place.
A helping hand might come if Serie A perform well enough in Europe to mean fifth place gets the Champions League, but the table shows that at the moment the Rossoneri do not seen even capable of getting there.
At the moment, Milan have an average points per game of 1.55 which would mean 59 points as the final total, if repeated for the rest of the season. It is a figure that, looking at the final standings of the last few seasons, would not even deliver the Conference League.
For the Champions League, understood as fourth place, you cannot think of anything lower than 70. It would mean an effective change of pace to the point of going from the current 1.55 points per game to 2.16. A substantial leap, for which the foundations for making it are currently not in sight.
The issue is that failing to qualify for the Champions League would interrupt the virtuous economic circle of recent years with obvious repercussions on the team’s medium-term growth. The paper speaks of potentially missing out on €80m, which is a huge amount.
Up to this point in the Champions League, the Rossoneri have earned €54m and on the road to the play-offs or direct qualification for the round of 16 they can reach €62m. And we are only talking about UEFA prize money there, with box office revenue and other bonuses to be added.
Not only that: even Sergio Conceiçao’s future – net of the 1.5 year contract – depends a lot and if not entirely on being in the main European club competition for 2025-26.
