The Ricketts family, who own the Chicago Cubs major league baseball team, said on Friday they were interested in buying a controlling stake in Italian Serie A football team AC Milan.
“The Ricketts family brought a championship to the Chicago Cubs through long-term investment and being great stewards of the team … They would bring this same approach to AC Milan,” the family said in a statement.
This announcement came after the Chinese majority shareholder of Italian soccer club AC Milan did not meet a Friday deadline to pay a final instalment owed in a cash call agreement, two sources with knowledge of the matter said on Friday.
Businessman Li Yonghong bought the Serie A soccer team last year from former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi and has been making capital injections into the club under the terms of the agreement.
But on Friday he failed to pay the remaining 32 million euro instalment from an overall 120 million euro capital increase carried out in two steps, the sources said.
