Berlusconi eyes Champions League with newly-promoted Monza

ROME

Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi wants a return to football glory -- after all the trophies he conquered with AC Milan -- promising to win the Champions League title with his newly-promoted club Monza.

Berlusconi bought Monza four years ago, when it was languishing in the Italian third division. Late on Sunday, it earned the right to play in the top Serie A division for the first time in its 110-year history.

“We fought for a long year and we made a historic achievement. Since 1912, Monza had never been in Serie A,” Berlusconi told the Italian broadcaster Sky Sport Italia after a 4-3 victory in extra time against play-off rivals Pisa.

“I am used to winning. It’s clear that now that we are in Serie A we must win the title, enter the Champions League and win it,” the 85-year-old billionaire media mogul and conservative politician said.

As the chairman of AC Milan from 1986 to 2017, Berlusconi liked to boast that he made the club the most successful in the world. Under his watch, the Milanese devils won 29 trophies, including eight Italian league and five Champions League titles.

Berlusconi bought Monza, the football club of a town just 20 kilometers (12 miles) northeast of Milan, at the instigation of Adriano Galliani, a friend and business partner who has become the club’s chief executive. He had the same position at AC Milan during the Berlusconi years.

According to the Italian daily La Repubblica, Berlusconi has already spent €71 million ($76.3 million) on Monza, but competing with top Italian and European clubs to win Serie A and the Champions League titles will require significantly more money.

Success with Monza could be a consolation for Berlusconi, a man who dominated Italy’s political scene for three decades but whose fortunes are now markedly down, also due to his increasingly frail health and continuing corruption trials.

In recent years, Berlusconi has been hospitalized often, including for coronavirus, while support for his Forza Italia party has collapsed. In January, he lobbied for parliament to elect him the Italian president, but the campaign failed miserably.