AC-Milan Fans Club

Associazione Calcio Milan, commonly referred to by the abbreviation AC Milan or simply Milan, is an italian professional football club based in Milan, Lombardy. The club was founded in 1899 and has since spent most of its history in the top flight of italian football.

In Europian and World competitions AC Milan have won 18 officially recognised international titles, more than any other club in the world. The club have won what is today known as the UEFA Champions League on seven occasions; only Real Madrid have won it more times (9). As far as Italian competitions are concerned, AC Milan is the second most successful club with 17 league titles; only Juventus have won more (27). AC Milan have won Intercontinental Cup/Club World Cup four times, more than any other team in the world.

Other important titles which Milan have won includes the European Super Cup five times, the Cup Winner's Cup twice, however they have never reached the UEFA Cup final (only two semifinals). In Italy, the Coppa Italy five times as well as five Italian Super Cups. AC Milan is also one of the G-14’s founding members, a group that represents eighteen of the largest and most prestigious European football clubs.

Their home games are played at San Siro, also known as the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza. The ground, which is shared with rivals Internazionale, is the largest in Italian football, with total capacity of 82,955.

The club was founded as a cricket club in 1899 by British expatriates Alfred Edward and Helbert Kilpin. In honour of its origins, the club has retained the English Spelling of its city's name, instead of changing it to the Italian Milano (though it was forced to do it during the fascistregime, like Genoa and Inter); it should be noted that the Italian pronunciation is actually MEE-lan, even though the English one is the same as in the local dialect and many other dialects of Northern Italy.

In 1980 Milan were involved in the Totonero scandal and were relegated to Serie B as punishment. The scandal was centred on a betting syndicate paying players and officials to fix the outcome of matches. Milan were allegedly involved in the 2006 seria A scandal where five teams were accused of fixing matches by selecting favourable referees. Milan were initially punished with a 15 point deduction and banned from the Champions League. An appeal saw their penalty reduced to 8 points and allowed to retain their 2006-07 Champions League participation, where they won the competition.

The team's current stadium is the 82,955 seat San Siro, officially known as Stadio Giuseppe Meazza after the former player who represented both Milan and Internazionale. The name San Siro is taken from the district where it's located. The stadium is shared with Inter, the other major football club in Milan. The stadium is well known for its fantastic atmosphere due to the closeness of the stands to the pitch. There is the frequent use of flares by the fans which often cause trouble.

On 19 December 2005, AC Milan vice-president and executive director Adriano galliani announced that the team is seriously working to move out from San Siro. He said that Milan's new stadium will be largely based on the Veltins-Arena and following the standards of football stadiums in the United States, Germany and Spain. It will likely be a stadium for football purposes only (with no athletics track). The new stadium is supposed to be named after a sponsor. It remains to see if this plan will proceed or if this is just a ploy to force the owners (Comune di Milano) to sell the stadium to Milan for a nominal fee so as to proceed with extensive renovations. Rumours have also surfaced of Inter'sintention to also build a new stadium which may also affect this decision.

Milan are the third most supported football club in Italy, with around 16.4% of Italian football fans supporting the club, according to the Doxa Institute-L'Expresso’s research in April 2006. Historically, Milan was supported by the city's working-class and trade unionist, a section of whom were migrants from Southern Italy. On the other hand, crosstown rivals Internazionale were mainly supported by the more prosperous and typically Milanese Middle-class.

One of the oldest ultras groups in all of Italian football, Fossa dei Leoni, originated in Milan. Currently the main ultras group is Brigate Rossonere and has been since the mid-1970s. Politically, Milan ultras have never had any particular preference, but the media have traditionally associated them with the left-wing, until recent times under Berlusconi's presidency where they are considered somewhat right wing.

Genoa fans consider Milan a hated rival after Genoa fan Vincenzo Spagnolo was tragically stabbed to death by a Milan supporter in January of 1995. Milan's main rivalry, though, is with intracity neighbor Inter; both clubs meet in the widely-anticipated Derby della Madonnina twice every Serie A season. The name of the derby refers to the Blessed virgin marry, whose statue atop the Milan chatedral is one of the city's main attractions. The match usually creates a lively atmosphere, with numerous (often humorous or offensive) banners unfolded before the match. flares are commonly present, but they also led to the abandonment of the second leg of the2005-2005 Champions Leages quarterfinal matchup between Milan and Inter on April 12, 2005, after a flare thrown from the crowd by an Inter supporter struck Milan keeper Dida on the shoulder