I really couldn't care less about AC Milan going out of the Champions' League. I can rationally try and be sorry for the implications it can have on italian football on the international scene, I realize it is a symbol of how weak our teams (and our system) are if compared to other ones.
But Milan is probably THE équipe to hate if you are from Naples, and the fact that it is Berlusconi's team adds some not-too-subtle pleasure when it loses anything - even if one of Berlusconi's best tricks is to turn into the one who shall be praised, when he wins, and the one who's blaming someone else, when he loses. Plus, Manchester United has some kind of undeniable, totally contradictory working-class charme.
Still, ManU also has a 800.000.000 € debt. With that amount of money you could buy a whole team of Cristiano Ronaldo's. Still, football players in Spain only pay 25% of their revenue in taxes, which means that their teams have to pay them salaries about 25% lower than in the rest of Europe - a top team in Italy would save around 30.000.000 € every year. While this summer AC Milan had to sell Kaka to keep its financial situation acceptable.
I'm glad the italian system seems more strict than the others. I don't get why football should be treated differently from any other economic activity, where you pay salaries and taxes, and go into bankruptcy when you run out of money. It just doesn't seem fair to me to have a match where competitors are in so different legal and financial conditions. How is that different from buying the referee, playing with a 12th man on the pitch, or having your players doped?
I agree :-)
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