Singapore: Ex-Inter Milan star Franceso Toldo said on Thursday foreign ownership is good for Italian football amid a protracted takeover bid for rivals AC Milan that could see both Italian clubs come under Chinese owners.
His comments follows remarks by Dutch football great and former AC player Marco Van Basten that the prospects of both Milan clubs being under Chinese control was “hard to swallow”.
Inter, who have struggled since winning the treble under Jose Mourinho in 2010, have been owned by the China’s Suning Commerce group since June last year.
AC are themselves in the midst of a takeover by Sino-Europe Sports, a Chinese consortium.
Speaking to reporters in Singapore, Toldo said the acquisition of Inter “shows that there is growing interest from foreign investors to come to Italy and make it a bigger platform” for the league.
“Its only beneficial for us (Inter) because it gives us more exposure, especially given the fact that we have so many foreign players,” he said when asked about his thoughts on foreign ownership.
“We want to be an international team despite the fact that we are an Italian team. We still want to have international audience,” he said through an interpreter.
Toldo, who spent nine seasons at Inter as a goalkeeper, was speaking on the sidelines of an International Champions Cup (ICC) event in the city-state.
Van Basten, who had played with AC as a striker, has been critical of foreigners owning the rival Milan clubs.
“It’s hard to think of Milan and Inter having Chinese owners. Two such glorious clubs should remain Italian,” Van Basten said in an interview with Italian sports daily Gazzetta dello Sport in January.
“It’s not just about the charm or the story, of (Massimo) Moratti or (Silvio) Berlusconi. It’s about passion, which is priceless.”
But Toldo said that Inter under its Chinese owners are on the rebound after trailing off since reaching their peak seven years ago.
“What happened is in 2010, after winning the Champions League, we got too drunk celebrating the victory, so we took a little bit of time to set the team again from scratch,” Toldo said.
Rebuilding “started as soon as the foreign investors came in,” he said.
“There are expectations that within the next couple of years, Inter will be back to be a leading team in the Champions League.”
Inter will be playing pre-season games in Singapore and China in July, as part of the ICC.
Organisers said on Thursday that Singapore has signed a four-year contract as the Southeast Asian host country for the tournament. China is the other anchor for the rest of Asia. — AFP
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