Silvio Berlusconi Has to Do More Than Just Visit AC Milan

Ever since Silvio Berlusconi’s holding company Fininvest was ordered to pay hundreds of millions of euros over the bribery of an Italian judge, there has been little for the former prime minister to do. Berlusconi eventually lost his seat in Italian parliament and he was convicted of tax fraud (he is currently appealing the decision, according to Reuters).

For now, he is serving a one-year sentence through community service at a retirement home in a town outside Milan. The 77-year-old did face the prospect of house arrest, according The Guardian, but more importantly Berlusconi has never spent a day in jail.

Without political commitments, the owner of AC Milan has spent more of his time visiting his team. Players took pictures with him. Of course he flew in to the training ground on a helicopter and had lunch with coach Filippo Inzaghi and CEO Adriano Galliani.

Berlusconi spoke with the team too, and he even sat in the stands for the big match between Milan and Juventus last weekend. Berlusconi will be back every Friday to motivate the squad.

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"Il Presidente, Silvio Berlusconi" -Nigel de Jong pic.twitter.com/V4ZG6LJNon

— Momento futbol (@momentofutbol_) September 12, 2014"

It’s just like the old times, when Berlusconi regularly made visits and inspired the club to great results. Maybe he has rediscovered the passion for Milan once again—but now it is about returning to winning ways.

Already Berlusconi has criticized Inzaghi. Milan lost 1-0 to Juventus at home and the big man started to grumble.

“Milan win if Inzaghi listens to my advice,” Berlusconi is quoted as saying in La Gazzetta dello Sport (h/t Football Italia). 

It’s not the first time Berlusconi has meddled in team affairs. Before the 2003 Champions League final, Berlusconi sat among the players in the very last training session before leaving for Old Trafford. Carlo Ancelotti was the coach and he handed out sheets of paper with formations and plays. Berlusconi wanted a copy for himself.

“The fact that he was there made quite an impression on me,” Ancelotti wrote in his book, The Beautiful Games of an Ordinary Genius. “If I know anything about him at all, he was wishing I would send him out onto the field—as part of the starting lineup, of course.”

Luca Bruno/Associated Press

Berlusconi would tell Ancelotti to play the game in a certain way with certain players. But Ancelotti knew when to indulge and how to please his boss and listen to him. 

But Berlusconi stopped. Politics—and lawsuits—got in the way. Last year he made only one visit.

Now Berlusconi is asking more of Inzaghi. They speak on a regular basis, on the phone and in person. But the team at his disposal is not the same one Ancelotti had. This is worse. The project is much more difficult for Inzaghi, who is still finding his way as a pro manager. 

Still, lots believe in him. “Inzaghi has arrived and he has what it takes to do a good job despite the limits of his squad,” former teammate Gianluca Zambrotta told Goal.com's Rahul Bali. “But, of course, Milan can’t afford to buy top champions like in the past.”

Without spending, Berlusconi can only do so much. But he is worth at least $7.4 billion, according to the latest numbers from Forbes. There has to be money somewhere. And if he can't spend, he has to sell the team.

He can inspire the players he has but he is choosing not to spend that kind of cash that brought in Alessandro Nesta and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Paying visits every week is the least Berlusconi can do with his free time.