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AC Milan have agreed a one-year ban from UEFA competitions due to breaching financial fair play rules. The Serie A side were due to compete in the group stage of the Europa League during the 2019-20 campaign but they have now been disqualified over failing to address FFP breaches over a three-year period. Last summer Milan appealed a two-year suspended ban for breaching rules in 2015-17 successfully as they appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) that new ownership would solve the issues. However, UEFA opened up proceedings against Milan in April once again about overspending, and they have now agreed to not play in European competitions next season. CAS released the following statement on Friday. “AC Milan is excluded from participating in the UEFA Club Competitions of the sporting season 2019/2020 as a consequence of the breach of its FFP break-even obligations during the 2015/2016/2017 and the 2016/2017/2018 monitoring periods.” Milan finished fifth in Serie A last season and their place in the Europa League group stage will now go to AS Roma who finished in sixth, while Torino will now play in the Europa League qualifiers after finishing seventh in Italy’s top-flight in 2018-19. Is this news that damaging to Milan? No, not really. A club of their size doesn’t have a problem attracting players to join them, even with their recent struggles, and losing the Thursday-Sunday grind of long trips to play in the Europa League may actually help them focus on finishing in the top four of Serie A after a five-season absence in the UEFA Champions League. New manager Marco Giampaolo will also have more time to work with his players on the training ground each week and overall, it seems like this ban will actually be beneficial for Milan in the long run. Having a European ban on your record isn’t a great look, but Milan’s new ownership have promised a new stadium, have Ivan Gazidis in charge and the team only narrowly missed out on reaching the Champions League last season. Despite this ban, things are moving in the right direction. Follow @JPW_NBCSports
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