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Grief-stricken Berlusconi admits AC Milan sale was necessary

Action Images / Darren Walsh

Although the decision was made with "grief and emotion," AC Milan's owner of 31 years, Silvio Berlusconi, said he sold his beloved club so it could compete with the world's best once again.

The former Italian prime minister relinquished control of the Rossoneri on Thursday, as Chinese-led consortium Rossoneri Sport Investment Lux completed a protracted €740-million takeover.

Related: AC Milan completes drawn-out sale to Chinese-owned company

Following a series of delays and bureaucratic problems, speculation grew that Berlusconi would retain Milan amid uncertainty around the consortium's financial strength. Berlusconi's son, Pier Silvio, said "we would happily forge on ahead" in the event the deal collapsed.

But the 80-year-old Berlusconi granted several extensions, and his holding company, Fininvest, finally collected the remaining €370 million on Thursday.

"I today leave, after more than 30 years, the ownership and the presidency of AC Milan. I do it with grief and emotion, but knowing that modern football, to compete at the top level in Europe and in the world, needs investments and resources that only one family cannot support," he wrote in a letter published on Milan's official website.

"I will never forget the emotions that AC Milan gave me and to all of us. I will never forget all the people thanks to whom I had the chance to become the president of this club that has won so much."

Berlusconi added: "I will forever be AC Milan's first fan, the team my father taught me to love when I was a child, the dream that we made come true together.

"I wish the new management to achieve even more great results than we did."

Under the watch of the media magnate, Milan won 29 trophies, including eight Serie A titles and five European crowns.

The conditions of the sale, initially agreed upon in August, require the club's new Chinese investors, Yonghong Li and David Han Li, to invest €350 million over the next three seasons directly into the team and assume €220 million in leftover debt.

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