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milan
Associazione Calcio Milan is an Italian football club. Based in Milan, Lombardy, they play in red-and-black stripes, giving them the nickname rossoneri ("red-blacks"). One of the most successful clubs in the world, they have won the prestigious European Cup 6 times (second only to Real Madrid), Intercontinental Cup 3 times, Serie A 17 times (only rivals Juventus have more Scudetti) and Coppa Italia five times. It is also one of the most supported football clubs in the world. 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; it should be noted that the current Italian pronunciation is actually MEE-lahn. Historically, AC Milan (usually referred to as "Mìlan" in Italy) was supported by the city's working classes and trade unionists, while Inter, the other big club from the city, was mainly supported by the more prosperous. However, in recent years, the clubs have seen a significant reversal in supporter bases, 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 businessman, Massimo Moratti. The team, with the first denomination of Milan Cricket and Football Club, was founded on December 16, 1899, by Alfred Edwards. The first elected president was Alfred Edwards, a former British vice-consul in Milan, and well-known personality of the Milanese high society. Initially the team included a cricket section, managed by Edward Berra, and a football section assigned to David Allison. The official colours chosen were red and black, in order to represent the fiery ardour which would have been part of the team members, and the fear of the opponents to challenge the team. Immediately the team gained relevant notability under Kilpin's guide; the first trophy to be won was the Medaglia del Re (King's Medal) on January 1900, and won three national leagues, in 1901, 1906 and 1907. The triumph of 1901 was particularly relevant because it stopped the consecutive series of wins of Genoa, which was the only team to have ever won the Italian league before that year. In 1908, because of issues related to the desire to sign foreign players, a "progressive" faction split from AC Milan and founded the Internazionale Milano (known as Inter). In 1916, AC Milan won the Federal Cup, a national trophy which somehow replaced the Italian league, suspended because of the World War I. That cup has not ever been recognized as Italian title. In 1919, the team changed its name to Milan Football Club. After the first triumphs, Milan was not able any longer to repeat those high-level successes, obtaining only a number of half-table placements, even if always playing in the Italian top division. In 1938 the fascist regime imposed a new italianized name, Associazione Calcio Milano, for the team. However, that name was abandoned immediately after the World War II, but maintaining the initial part: the team was called Associazione Calcio Milan, which is the current official name. [edit] The fabulous 1950s In the post-war period, AC Milan was among the three top Italian teams, and won its first scudetto of the previous 44 years in 1951. It was the great Milan which included the famous Gre-No-Li, a trio of Swedish players composed by Gunnar Gren, Gunnar Nordahl and Nils Liedholm, which led the team to a number of triumphs at both national and continental level. That team also fielded players such as Lorenzo Buffon, Cesare Maldini and Carlo Annovazzi. After the 1951 scudetto, AC Milan won other three Serie A seasons, in 1955, 1957 and 1959, and two Latin Cups, in 1951 and 1956. In the end, over all the seasons from 1947/1948 to 1957/1957, AC Milan always placed among the top three teams. [edit] The period of Nereo Rocco AC Milan returned to win a football league in 1961/1962. Its manager was Nereo Rocco, an innovative football coach, known as inventor of the catenaccio tactic. The team included a young Gianni Rivera and José Altafini. The following season, thanks also to Altafini's goals, Milan won for its first time ever the Champions League, won in a 2-1 final match won against Benfica and played in the legendary Wembley Stadium. It was the first time an Italian team won the Champions League. Despite that, during the 1960s Milan won less than it deserved, mainly because of the heavy concurrence of Helenio Herrera's Inter. Its next scudetto arrived only in 1967/1968, thanks to the goals of Pierino Prati, the Serie A topscorer in that season, as well as the Cup Winners' Cup, won against Hamburger SV thanks to two goals of Kurt Hamrin. The next season AC Milan won its second Champions League (4-1 to AFC Ajax), and in 1969 won its first Intercontinental Cup, after having defeated in two dramatic legs the Estudiantes de La Plata of Argentina (3-0, 1-2). [edit] The 10th scudetto and the first Serie B In the 1970s, AC Milan won three Italian Cups and its second Cup Winners' Cup; however, the real goal of the rossoneri was the 10th scudetto, which would have awarded the first stella (star) to the team. In 1972/1973, AC Milan was able to lose it in the last day, after a humiliating defeat against Verona. AC Milan had to wait until 1978/1979 to win its tenth scudetto, mainly thanks to Gianni Rivera, who retired from football after his final triumph. However, the worst had to come for the rossoneri: after the 1979/1980 season, AC Milan was relegated by the Football Federation, together with S.S. Lazio, because of a match fixing scandal. In 1981, after having easily won the Serie B, AC Milan suffered its worst season ever, being relegated again after a quite disastrous season. It was the first actual relegation for AC Milan. The team once again returned back to Serie A in 1982; however the most known episode of the Milan of those times was the very humiliating 1-2 home defeat against Cavese in that season. [edit] The Berlusconi presidency CelebratingAfter several financial troubles which brought the team into bad times, without any kind of success, AC Milan was bought on February 20, 1986 by Silvio Berlusconi, a Milanese enterpreneur. Berlusconi called a rising coach, Arrigo Sacchi, and three Dutch players, Marco van Basten, Frank Rijkaard and Ruud Gullit, in order to bring the team back to the highest levels. Sacchi won the 1987/1988 season after a great recovery over Diego Maradona's Napoli. In 1988/1989, AC Milan won its third Champions League, defeating Steaua Bucuresti in the final match. The team repeated that triumph the following season, against Benfica, and conquered its second Intercontinental Cup. The second Intercontinental Cup in a row, won against Olimpia Asuncion, is the main triumph of 1991. The triumphs of Sacchi were carried on by Fabio Capello, who led the team to a season without a single defeat. In addition to three consecutive scudetti (from 1992 to 1994), AC Milan reached the Champions League final for three consecutive years: in 1993 it was defeated by Olympique de Marseille; in 1994, it was FC Barcelona who experienced the taste of defeat, after a famous 4-0 thrashing at the hands of the rossoneri; and in the 1995 finals, Milan were again defeated by Ajax Amsterdam. During this time, the Rossoneri came to be known as Gli Invicibili, The Invincibles, with an unprecedented 58-match run with no defeats. The Invincibili team had the likes of Franco Baresi and Paolo Maldini commanding possibly one of the best defences in history, alongside Dejan Savicevic, Zvonimir Boban, and Daniele Massaro rounding out the attack. More recently, after a short period of difficulty, AC Milan have attempted to recapture their glory days, with two domestic titles in 1999 and 2004 and a sixth Champions League trophy in 2003. In 2005, Despite a goal from Paolo Maldini very early on and two goals from Hernan Crespo, Milan let a 3-0 lead in their Champions League Final slip to a 3-3 draw, conceding 3 second half goals in a span of 6 minutes, before losing on penalties against Liverpool F.C. of England. This was the first time that Milan had lost in a European Final while playing in their away strip of all-white. On the 8th of March 2006, Milan defeated FC Bayern Munich of Germany in the first knock-out round of the UEFA Champions League and became the only club in Europe that has participated in the quarter finals of the tournament in every season between 2002/2003 and 2005/2006. Thus, the club affirms its status as one of the powerhouses of European football, and has arguably been the strongest team in Europe in this time period. AC Milan defeated Olympique Lyonnais 3-1 in the quarter-finals of this season's (2005-2006) UEFA Champions League - a match in which Filippo Inzaghi and Andriy Shevchenko scored in the last few minutes of the match to rescue AC. In scoring Shevchenko became the all time Champions League top scorer. Milan was defeated by FC Barcelona of Spain 0-1 on aggregate in the semi-finals of the 2005/06 UEFA Champions League. The team's current stadium is the 85,700 seater Giuseppe Meazza, also known as the San Siro. The stadium is shared with Internazionale (also known as "Inter"), the other major football club in Milan. AC Milan supporters use "San Siro" to refer to the stadium because Meazza was a star player for Inter. On 19 December 2005, Milan Vice-President/CEO, 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 Schalke Arena and following the standards of football stadia in America, Germany, and Spain. Most likely it will be a stadium for football purpose only (without the athletic tracks). The new stadium's name will be given to the sponsors. Serie A Champions: 1901, 1906, 1907, 1951, 1955, 1957, 1959, 1962, 1968, 1979, 1988, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1999, 2004 Coppa Italia winners: 1967, 1972, 1973, 1977, 2003 European Champions: 1963, 1969, 1989, 1990, 1994, 2003,2007 Cup Winners Cup winners: 1968, 1973 Intercontinental Champions: 1969, 1989, 1990 European Super Cup: 1989, 1990, 1994, 2003 Italian Super Cup: 1988, 1992, 1993, 1994, 2004
