Umberto Gandini has decided not to join the Milan management after the latest meeting with Ivan Gazidis, it’s reported.
Milan have already announced that starting from December 1st, Ivan Gazidis will become the new CEO of the club.
Gazidis had left his role as the CEO of Arsenal after 10 years as he was tempted by Elliott’s lucrative offer.
Another one who left his club, Roma, is Umberto Gandini, who at the end of the last month walked away from his position as the CEO of the Giallorossi after two years.
It was expected that Gandini would join the Milan management and act as a “co-CEO” with Gazidis, but according to today’s edition of La Gazzetta dello Sport, Umberto has decided not to accept the offer of Milan. The decision was taken after the ‘umpteenth meeting’ between Gazidis and Gandini.
Gandini worked alongside Adriano Galliani at Milan for 23 years, but unlike Leonardo and Paolo Maldini, reportedly feels that a return to the Rossoneri is not the best move for him at the moment. Gazzetta notes that ‘critical issues’ emerged in the proposal of the management reorganization and Gandini has therefore decided to take a step back and consider other roles.
Gandini acted as the VP of the ECA, the European Club Association, and his return would have been beneficial for Milan in their relationships with UEFA, as Gandini is held in high regard there. Gazzetta claims Gandini is open now to all roles, from foreign positions, to roles in Lega Serie A and in FIGC.
Therefore, the pink newspaper believes that Gazidis will be the only CEO of the club and will focus more on international relations and affairs, like sponsorships and UEFA. In the meantime, interim CEO and board Chairman Paolo Scaroni will be taking care of the internal affairs at Milan.
In other management-related news, the Rossoneri announced earlier this week that Chief Financial Officer Valentina Montanari left and the role has been given to board member Gianluca D’Avanzo.
How big a loss is this?
Non I believe, having two managers at the top can be very contradictory since each has their own view on managing.
I think Milan now has enough directors in Gazidis, Scaroni, Leonardo and Maldini.
Yeah. Having two CEOs was weird back then with Galliani and Barbara and it would be weird again with Gazidis and Gandini. No need for that.
Its a role requiring an excellent relationship with UEFA and unfortunately, they couldn’t agree which i suspect is about conflict of interest.
Regardless, Gazidis is highly respected too but it would have been better to assign the role to another person. Marotta is available, maybe he could fill the void.
I am pretty certain it’s an issue of power and control, ‘reorganization’ as he article say.
Gazidis will not want a repeat of the arsenal situation where he literally had to share powers with Wenger. I like Gandini but I guess it’s better disagreements happen now than when they are both holding the steering wheel.