Milan sacks Allegri after missing out on the Champions League and launches a major shake-up at the top of the club
AC Milan on Monday, May 25, 2026, dismissed head coach Massimiliano Allegri and at the same time announced a deep change in the club's sporting and management structure. The decision came the day after the defeat to Cagliari at San Siro, a result that took the Milan club away from the direct objective of the season: a return to the Champions League. According to the official statement from RedBird Capital Partners, the ownership group that manages Milan, the club assessed the season as an "undeniable failure" because the mandate set before the start of the competitive year had not been fulfilled. Alongside Allegri, chief executive Giorgio Furlani, sporting director Igli Tare and technical director Geoffrey Moncada also immediately ceased to perform their duties. Such a simultaneous departure of the coach and the key figures in the sporting sector shows that this is not only a change on the bench, but an attempt at a complete reshaping of the club structure before the new season.
RedBird's statement said that, after a disappointing previous season, the ownership had demanded from the club a return to Europe's most elite competition and the creation of foundations for long-term competitiveness at the top of Serie A. Milan spent a large part of the season near the top of the table and, according to the same statement, had a realistic possibility of joining the fight for the Scudetto. The final stretch, however, changed the impression of the entire year. After the last round, the club finished fifth in Serie A with 70 points, one point behind fourth-placed Como, while the Champions League places were won by Inter, Napoli, Roma and Como, according to data published on Milan's official website. In that situation, the management concluded that urgent changes were needed, and new appointments, according to the club announcement, will be communicated when they are completed.
The defeat to Cagliari decided the season
The immediate sporting trigger was the match of the 38th round of Serie A, played on May 24, 2026, at the Giuseppe Meazza stadium, in which Milan lost to Cagliari 1:2. According to available match reports and season data, that defeat had a direct effect on the final standings because Milan remained on 70 points, while Como, with a victory in the final round, reached 71 points and fourth place. For a club of Milan's profile, which has seven European champion titles in European history, missing out on the Champions League for the second time in a short period represents both a sporting and a financial blow. The Champions League brings greater revenue from television rights, commercial bonuses and UEFA prize money, but also significantly greater negotiating power in the players' market. For that reason, failure is not measured only by one result, but also by the consequences for squad planning, wages, transfers and the club's position in relation to direct competitors.
Milan entered the final stretch of the league with prospects of finishing the season among the top four teams, but a series of weaker results in the last rounds weakened Allegri's team's position. The official table shows that Milan ended the season with a record of 20 wins, 10 draws and 8 defeats, with 53 goals scored and 35 conceded. Those numbers in themselves do not indicate a complete collapse in results, but in the context of the objective set by the ownership they were not enough. Particularly painful was the fact that Cagliari, a team from the lower part of the table, finished the season in 14th place, but in the decisive round managed to take a victory away from Milan. In its official statement, RedBird specifically marked the final stretch of the season as a period that was significantly below the level shown during most of the championship.
Allegri returned as the solution and leaves after one season
Massimiliano Allegri returned to Milan in May 2025 as a coach with great experience and strong symbolism. The club then officially announced his appointment after the departure of Sérgio Conceição, and the return was presented as an attempt to stabilize the team and return to the top of Italian football. Allegri had already managed Milan from 2010 to 2014 and in the 2010/11 season won the Italian championship title, which was then Milan's first Scudetto after seven years. After that, with Juventus, he built one of the most trophy-laden coaching tenures in modern Serie A, with several consecutive league titles and two Champions League finals. It was precisely that reputation that was one of the reasons why his return to Milan was welcomed as a move that should bring authority, tactical pragmatism and results.
But Allegri's second tenure at Milan ended without the main objective being fulfilled. According to official club information, Milan did not announce an interim solution on the bench nor did it immediately publish the name of the new coach. That means the new sporting project will probably be shaped only after the ownership decides who will take over the key functions in the sporting sector. Allegri's departure also opens the question of the profile of the new coach: will Milan look for an experienced name who can immediately take on the pressure of results, or will it try to build a longer-term project with a coach who will have a greater role in player development. Given that the sporting director and the technical director also left at the same time, the decision on the successor will not be only sporting, but also strategic.
Furlani, Tare and Moncada have left
The greatest weight of the club announcement comes from the fact that the change did not stop with the coach. According to the official statement from RedBird Capital Partners, the mandates of Giorgio Furlani, Igli Tare and Geoffrey Moncada were also ended immediately. As chief executive, Furlani was one of the most prominent names in the club administration and a person who represented management continuity after RedBird's takeover. Tare came to Milan as a sporting director with experience from Lazio, where for years he had an important role in sporting planning and transfers. Moncada was connected with the technical sector and scouting, an area that in recent years had been important for Milan's policy of finding players before they reached the highest market value.
Such a package of departures indicates that the owner did not conclude that the problem was exclusively in leading the team from the bench. In the statement, RedBird said that it was "time for change" and a "deep reorganization" of the club's football operations, while thanking the four officials for their work and commitment. In practice, this means that Milan enters the summer without the people who were supposed to lead the most important decisions in the transfer window, from the choice of coach to the assessment of the squad and negotiations over reinforcements. The club announced that further statements about new appointments will follow when they are defined, with the aim of having the structure ready for the next season. Time is a sensitive factor here because the transfer window and preparations require quick decisions, especially for a club that must restore trust after a disappointing end to the championship.
RedBird under pressure after the unfulfilled objective
RedBird Capital Partners took over Milan with the ambition that the club remain sporting competitive and financially sustainable, and missing out on the Champions League directly makes both objectives more difficult. Although the club did not speak about the financial consequences in the official statement, absence from the strongest European competition usually reduces predictable revenue and affects the negotiating position in relation to players, agents and sponsors. Milan finished 2025/26 behind Inter, Napoli, Roma and Como, which is especially painful because fourth place was lost by the smallest of margins. According to the official table, Inter finished the season as champion with 87 points, Napoli had 76, Roma 73, Como 71 and Milan 70. Juventus remained sixth with 69 points, so the final stretch of the championship showed how small the differences were that decided the European schedule for the next season.
For RedBird, an additional problem is the public perception of the club's management. When an owner dismisses the chief executive, sporting director, technical director and coach in one day, the message is that the previous decision-making model did not deliver results. Italian and international media had already written about tensions within the club structure before the end of the season, but the official statement does not go into the details of possible internal disagreements. Therefore, confirmed information must be distinguished from speculation: it has been confirmed that the four officials left their positions and that the ownership plans a reorganization, while at present it has not been officially confirmed who will replace them or whether the role of other people connected with the club will change. In such a situation, the ownership's next moves will be important not only for the choice of coach, but also for the credibility of the entire sporting project.
The sporting result did not follow the ambitions
Milan's season was not without positive periods, something RedBird itself points out in the announcement in which it says the team was long near the top of Serie A. The problem, however, arose at the moment when the result had to be confirmed. Finishing fifth with 70 points in a strong league may look like a solid performance, but for a club that began the season with the clear objective of qualifying for the Champions League, such a ranking is not enough. In addition, the way in which fourth place was lost intensified the impression of a missed opportunity. Milan did not fall far from the objective, but remained just below the line, which often causes stronger consequences because failure can be linked to individual matches, decisions and crisis periods.
The final table also shows the wider context of the changing balance of power in Italian football. Inter convincingly won the title, Napoli and Roma secured a return to or a stay at the top, and Como achieved an extraordinary rise to fourth place and qualification for the Champions League. Milan remained ahead of Juventus, Atalanta, Bologna and Lazio, but that was not enough for the competitive and business objective set by the management. In such an environment, the club must find a balance between short-term pressure for results and long-term planning. Every new sporting director and coach will have to quickly decide which players remain the pillars of the project, where reinforcements are needed and how to assemble a team capable of returning to the Champions League.
What comes next for Milan
After such a broad cut, Milan enters a period in which the order of decisions will be as important as the names of the new people themselves. First, the definition of the management and sporting structure is expected, because without that it is not easy to choose a coach or manage the transfer window. If the new director of the sporting sector is appointed before the coach, that director will probably have a significant say in the choice of the coaching staff and the profile of the team. If the coach is chosen first, the club will have to clearly determine his powers in transfers and his relationship with future directors. According to the official statement, RedBird wants the club to be ready and well prepared for the next season, but no deadline for appointments has been published so far.
For the fans and the wider football public, the most important question will be whether Milan can avoid another transitional summer marked by uncertainty. A team that finishes fifth does not necessarily have to start from the beginning, but the departure of almost the entire top of sporting decision-making changes the circumstances. The new people will have to analyze why the final stretch of the season was weaker than expected, how the team lost its position for the Champions League and which decisions led to the season, despite a long stay near the top, being assessed as a failure. Milan's next project will therefore not be only a search for a new coach. It will be an attempt to establish a clearer chain of responsibility in a club that, after the defeat to Cagliari and fifth place in Serie A, has opted for one of the deepest cuts in its recent history.
Sources:
- AC Milan – official statement by RedBird Capital Partners on the departures of Allegri, Furlani, Tare and Moncada and the announced reorganization (link)
- AC Milan – official Serie A table for the 2025/26 season with the final standings, points and Milan's record (link)
- World Soccer Data – data on the Milan – Cagliari 1:2 match played on May 24, 2026 (link)
- The Guardian – overview of the final round of Serie A and the context of Champions League qualification for the 2025/26 season (link)