History

Herbert Kilpin, the first captain of A.C. Milan

The club was founded as a cricket club in 1899 by British expatriates Alfred Edwards and Herbert Kilpin, who came from the British city of Nottingham. In honor of its origins, the club has retained the English spelling of its city's name, instead of changing it to the Italian Milano, although it was forced to do so during the fascist regime. Milan won its first Italian championship in 1901 and a further two in succession in 1906 and 1907.
In 1908, the club experienced a split caused by internal disagreements over the signing of foreign players, which led to the forming of another Milan-based team, Internazionale. Following these events, Milan did not manage to win a single domestic title until 1950–51. In 1963, the club ensured its first continental title by beating Benfica in the final of the European Cup. This success was repeated in 1969, and followed by an Intercontinental Cup title the same year. After the retirement of Gianni Rivera, Milan went into a period of decline, during which the club was involved in the 1980 Totonero scandal and relegated to Serie B as punishment, for the first time in its history. The scandal was centered around a betting syndicate paying players and officials to fix the outcome of matches. Milan quickly returned to Serie A but was relegated to Serie B one year later as the team ended its 1981–82 campaign in third last place.
In 1986, entrepreneur Silvio Berlusconi acquired the club and immediately invested a lot of money in the team, appointing rising coach Arrigo Sacchi at the helm of the Rossoneri and signing a Dutch trio of Ruud Gullit, Marco van Basten and Frank Rijkaard. This was the beginning of the most successful time in the club's history, as Milan won seven domestic titles, one Coppa Italia, five Supercoppa Italiana, five Champions League trophies, five UEFA Super Cups, two Intercontinental Cups and one Fifa Club World Cup.
More recently, the club was involved in the 2006 Serie A scandal where five teams were accused of fixing matches by selecting favorable referees. A police inquiry excluded any involvement of Milan managers, 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 consequently did not qualify for the Champions League. An appeal saw that penalty reduced to eight points, which allowed the club to retain its 2006–07 Champions League participation. Milan subsequently won the competition, lifting the European Cup for the seventh time.