Milanello

Milanello is being known worldwide as being one of the best training centers that a soccer team could possibly have.

It all started in 1961. Milanello was built in aproximately two years therefore it was opened in 1963. The masterminds behind Milanello are the architect Viani and the engineer Crescentini.

When Berlusconi took off the helm over the club in 1986, he restructured the training center with the help of a company named Edilnord.

Milanello is surrounded by 114.000 square kilometres of countryside and it is located at 40 kilometres outside Milan. Milanello is linked with Milan by a highway named Autostrada dei Laghi. It has six football grounds, from which 3 indoors, an astroturf ground and a covered ground.

In the surrounding forests a 1,2 kilometres long track has been built and it is used to dacilitate the rapid recovery of injured players.

The main part of Milanello contains a two floors high building, a bar and restaurant as well as dining rooms, relaxation rooms, rooms for players and staff, a first aid room and a sauna. In the underground there's the laundry room, a car park and some storage rooms.

There are a total of 46 rooms for players and staff containing 56 beds. Berlusconi, the club president also has his own room in Milanello, but it has yet to be used. Due to the increasing number of staff the room was assigned to two of the current Milan players.

Andrea Rizolli, one of the men who helped building Milanello has stipulated a clause in the contract which gives Milanello to Milan AC in which it says that the training center can only be sold to the Italian FA.

In fact, the Italian FA, located in Coverciano [locality well known for its coach school], used Milanello for the Italian national team before the European Championship final tournaments in 1998 and 1996 and before the 1994 and 1998 World Cup final tournaments.

The Red and Black training facility was a starting point for the other clubs in building their own training centers. This way, following the structure of Milanello, Parma has built a training center at Collecchio while Lazio at Formello.

Milanello has a total of 14 staff members which permanently work in the Red and Black training center.

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