On 19 December 2005

Red and black are the colours which represented the club throughout its entire history. They were chosen to represent the players' fiery ardor (red) and the opponents' fear to challenge the team (black). Rossoneri, the team's widely used nickname, literally means "the red & blacks" in Italian, in reference to the colours of the stripes on its jersey.[28]
Another nickname derived from the club's colours is the Devil. An image of a red devil was used as Milan's logo at one point with a Golden Star for Sport Excellence located next to it.[29] As is customary in Italian football, the star above the logo was awarded to the club after winning 10 league titles, in 1979. For many years, Milan's badge was simply the Flag of Milan, which was originally the flag of Saint Ambrose.[29] The modern badge used today represents the club colors and the flag of the Comune di Milano, with the acronym ACM at the top and the foundation year (1899) at the bottom.[29]
White shorts and black socks are usually worn as part of the home strip. Milan's away strip has always been completely white. It is considered by both the fans and the club to be a lucky strip in Champions League finals, due to the fact that Milan has won six finals out of eight in an all white strip (losing only to Ajax in 1995 and Liverpool in 2005), and only won one out of three in the home strip. The third strip, which is rarely used, changes yearly, being mostly black with red trimmings in recent seasons


The team's stadium is the 80,018 seat San Siro, officially known as Stadio Giuseppe Meazza after the former player who represented both Milan and Internazionale. The more commonly used name, San Siro, is the name of the district where it's located. San Siro has been the home of Milan since 1926, when it was privately built by funding from Milan's president at the time, Piero Pirelli. Construction was performed by 120 workers, and took 13 and a half months to complete. The stadium was owned by the club until it was sold to the city council in 1935, and since 1947 has been shared with Internazionale, when the other major Milanese club was accepted as joint tenant.
The first game played at the stadium was on 19 September 1926, when Milan lost 6–3 in a friendly match against Internazionale. Milan played its first league game in San Siro on 19 September 1926, losing 1–2 to Sampierdarenese. From an initial capacity of 35,000 spectators, the stadium has undergone several major renovations, most recently in preparation for the 1990 FIFA World Cup when its capacity was set to 85,700, all covered with a polycarbonate roof. In the summer of 2008 its capacity has been reduced to 80,018, in order to meet the new standards set by UEFA.
Based on the English model for stadiums, San Siro is specifically designed for football matches, as opposed to many multi-purpose stadiums used in Serie A. It is therefore renowned in Italy for its fantastic atmosphere during matches, thanks to the closeness of the stands to the pitch. The frequent use of flares by supporters contributes to the atmosphere but the practice has occasionally caused problems.
On 19 December 2005, Milan vice-president and executive director Adriano Galliani announced that the club is seriously working towards a relocation. He said that Milan's new stadium will be largely based on the Veltins-Arena and will follow the standards of football stadiums in the United States, Germany and Spain. As opposed to many other stadiums in Italy, Milan's new stadium will likely be used for football only, having no athletics track. The new stadium's naming rights will be probably sold to a sponsor, similarly to Arsenal's Emirates Stadium.[30] It remains to be seen 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. The possibility of Internazionale vacating San Siro may affect proceedings

The team then won its first FIFA Club World Cup in December 2007.

On 20 February 1986, entrepreneur Silvio Berlusconi acquired the club and saved it from bankruptcy investing vast amounts of money,[2] appointing rising manager Arrigo Sacchi at the helm of the Rossoneri and signing the Dutch trio of Ruud Gullit, Marco van Basten and Frank Rijkaard.[2] Under Sacchi, Milan won its first Scudetto in nine years in the 1987–88 season. The following year the club won its first European Cup in two decades, beating Romanian club Steaua Bucure?ti 4–0 in the final. Milan retained their title with a 1–0 win over Benfica a year later and remain the last team to win back-to-back European Cups.[17] The Milan team of 1989–90 has been voted the best club side of all time, in a global poll of experts conducted by World Soccer magazine.[18]
After Sacchi left Milan in 1991, he was replaced by the club's former player Fabio Capello whose team won three consecutive Serie A titles between 1992 and 1994, a spell which included a 58 match unbeaten run in Serie A[19] and back-to-back UEFA Champions League final appearances in 1993 and 1994. A year after losing 1–0 to Olympique de Marseille in the 1993 Champions League final, the team reached its peak in one of Milan's most memorable matches of all time, the famous 4–0 win over Barcelona in the 1994 Champions League final.[19] Capello's team went on to win the 1995–96 league title before he left to coach Real Madrid in 1996.[19] In 1998–99, after a two-year period of decline, Milan lifted its 16th championship in the club's centenary season.
Milan's next period of success came under another former player, Carlo Ancelotti. After his appointment in November 2001, Ancelotti took Milan to the 2003 Champions League final, where they defeated Juventus on penalties to win the club's sixth European Cup.[20] The team then won the Scudetto in 2003–04, before reaching the 2005 Champions League final, where they were beaten by Liverpool on penalties despite leading 3–0 at half time.[20] Two years later, the two teams met again in the 2007 Champions League final with Milan winning 2–1 to lift the title for a seventh time.[20] The team then won its first FIFA Club World Cup in December 2007.[21] In 2009, after becoming Milan's second longest serving coach, with 420 matches overseen,[21] Ancelotti left the club to take over as head-coach at Chelsea.
During this period, the club was involved in the Calciopoli scandal, where five teams were accused of fixing matches by selecting favorable referees.[22] A police inquiry excluded any involvement of Milan managers,[23] but FIGC unilaterally decided that it had sufficient evidence to charge Milan vice-president, Adriano Galliani. As a result, Milan was initially punished with a 15-point deduction and was initially banned from the 2006–07 UEFA Champions League. An appeal saw that penalty reduced to eight points,[24] which allowed the club to retain its Champions League participation. Milan subsequently won the competition, lifting the European Cup for the seventh time.[25]
Following the aftermath of Calciopoli, local rivals Internazionale dominated Serie A, winning four Scudetti. However, with the help a strong squad boasting players such as Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Robinho and Alexandre Pato joining many of the veterans of the club's mid-decade European successes, Milan recaptured the Scudetto in the 2010–11 Serie A season, their first since the 2003–04 season, and 18th overall.