This past weekend saw Milan and Inter go head-to-head in the latest instalment of a city rivalry that once stood as the vanguard of world football. Sharing a history that stretches back to when clubs conquered Europe for the first time during the 1960s, it is a fixture steeped in tradition and one which has given the global game some truly unforgettable moments.
Cristián Zapata’s acrobatic 97th minute equaliser is perhaps unlikely to be remembered in the same manner as images of Mark Hateley’s towering header over Fulvio Collovati or Marco Materazzi leaning on Manuel Rui Costa as Inter fans showered the San Siro turf with flares, but Saturday’s clash unquestionably marked the beginning of a new era.
That game, which eventually finished in a 2-2 stalemate, will always be the first of the post-Silvio Berlusconi years for Milan, the former Prime Minister finally selling the club this week. The discussions and payments had suffered countless delays but came less than a year after another Chinese consortium – Suning Sports – acquired Inter by buying out former owners Erick Thohir and Massimo Moratti.
While recent seasons have seen both clubs languish in mid-table mediocrity, it should not be forgotten that during Berlusconi’s time at the helm – which began in 1986 when the team were in Serie B – a staggering 29 major honours, including eight Scudetti and five Champions League crowns, were won by Milan while their crosstown rivals claimed another 16 trophies.
"I leave today, after more than 30 years, the ownership and the presidency of AC Milan," Berlusconi wrote on the club's official website as the agreement with a group of Chinese investors was completed. "I do it with grief and emotion, but knowing that modern football, to compete at the top level in Europe and in the world, needs investments and resources that only one family cannot support.”
He went on to thank the plethora of star players and Coaches that had been so crucial in achieving those successes, singling out his long-time ally Adriano Galliani who did much of the work in the transfer market. However, after that, Berlusconi reserved what he labelled his “deepest thank you” for the Rossoneri supporters “who filled the stadiums to shout Forza Milan” and who backed the team even in their darkest moments.
"Without all of them, our glorious AC Milan wouldn't have existed and would not exist today. Together with them, we won everything there was to win,” Berlusconi’s open letter continued. “I have in my eyes and in my heart, thousands of different moments where the affection showed by our fans was something extraordinary and really touching.”
The effects of this sale – as well as those of Inter, AS Roma, Palermo, Venezia and others – to foreign owners will remain to be seen, both on and off the field. The Milanese pair in particular had been financially mismanaged for quite some time, the damage of which will likely take years to fully undo.
However, one thing that is unlikely to ever change is the very passion and emotion felt at stadiums around the peninsula. When derbies like those in Milan, Rome or Genoa are discussed, it is not the great players and their accomplishments that are the first topics debated, it is instead the fans and how they marked each occasion.
It is standout moments like Genoa fans holding a mock-funeral when Sampdoria were relegated in 2011, that storm of flares in the 2005 Milan derby or the times when a sweeping choreography engulfs an entire stand. Back in January, when Fiorentina defeated bitter rivals Juventus at the Stadio Artemio Franchi, it was not the goals of Nikola Kalinić and Milan Badelj that lives on in the memory but instead the pre-match tribute to Giancarlo Antognoni’s return to Florence.
That brilliant display is typical of the Viola’s passionate Curva Fiesole, but similar efforts have been seen from Milan’s Curva Sud and Inter’s Curva Nord, who again delivered something special this past weekend. It is not the same as the corporate efforts from Juventus which – while visually stunning and impossible for fans to replicate – are organised by the club. That leaves them lacking the same authenticity, not making them better or worse than their counterparts across the peninsula, just different
But those fans, those true dyed-in-the-wool supporters who follow their team each and every week, who buy season tickets and cheer on their players even in defeat are often criticised. Yes the Ultras have been allowed too much control in many instances, yes there are far too many examples of racism or anti-Semitism that should never be permitted, forgiven or forgotten, but nor too should the many positives these groups bring to Italian football.
It is into this world that Roma’s James Pallotta and the two Chinese consortiums in Milan have entered. They may arrive with the best intentions, deliver even greater success than their predecessors and even make their respective clubs models of stability and usher in a new glorious era for Serie A as a whole.
But long after they are gone, the fans will remain. The beating heart and living soul of each and every club. They care who owns the club and who wears their beloved shirts out on the field below them, but it does not diminish their passion or dull their effort to support the colours that will always define them.
