The New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox may be the most storied rivals in Major League Baseball rivals, but when it comes to soccer they could soon be working together. Well, sort of. Yankees are planning to join RedBird Capital in the takeover of Italian soccer champions AC Milan, according to the Financial Times. RedBird also own a stake in Fenway Sports Group, which owns the Sox as well as Premier League team Liverpool.
Yankee Global Enterprises, along with a Los Angeles-based investment fund called Main Street Advisors, are working with the founder of RedBird Capital to complete the takeover of the legendary soccer club. RedBird agreed to a deal worth €1.2 billion in June to by Milan from Elliott Advisors. If you follow the bouncing ball through all of the corporate structures what you end up with is a group that owns a stake in the Red Sox, working with the ownership of the Yankees to buy AC Milan together. Soccer, apparently, can make strange bedfellows.
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It's important to note that RedBird's relationship to AC Milan would be quite different than their relationship to either the Red Sox or Liverpool. They own a stake believed to be around 10 percent of Liverpool, according to The Athletic. In this situation, however, they would be the active, controlling investors of the club. RedBird also own French team Toulouse.
The news comes at a big time for AC Milan as they prepare for a busy week of action. They host rival Inter Milan on Saturday in the Derby della Madonnina before facing RB Salzburg in the Champions League group stage on Tuesday. You can watch both of those matches live on Paramount+.
