AC Milan

Foundation and early years (1899–1950)

AC Milan was founded as Milan Foot-Ball and Cricket Club in 1899 by English expatriate Herbert Kilpin. The club claims 16 December of that year as their foundation date, but historical evidence seems to suggest that the club was actually founded a few days after, most likely on 18 December. However, with the club's charter being lost, the exact date remains open to debate.

In honour of its English origins, the club has retained the English spelling of the city's name, as opposed to the Italian spelling Milano, which it was forced to bear under the fascist regime. Milan won its first Italian championship in 1901, interrupting a three-year hegemony of Genoa, and a further two in succession in 1906 and 1907. The club proved successful in the first decade of its existence, with several important trophies won, including, among others, the Medaglia del Re three times, the Palla Dapples 23 times and the FGNI tournament five times, a competition organized by the Italian Gymnastics Federation but not officially recognized by the Italian Football Federation.

In 1908, Milan 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, with some exceptions represented by the 1915–16 Coppa Federale and the 1917–18 Coppa Mauro, two tournaments played during the First World War which, especially the former, received a lot of attention and proved to be highly competitive, despite them not being officially recognized by the Italian federation.

Return to victory and international affirmation (1950–1970)

The 1950s saw the club return to the top of Italian football, headed by the famous Gre-No-Li Swedish trio Gunnar Gren, Gunnar Nordahl and Nils Liedholm. This was one of the club's most successful periods domestically, with the Scudetto going to Milan in 1951, 1955, 1957 and 1959. This decade witnessed also the first European successes of Milan, with the 1951 and 1956 Latin Cup triumphs against Lille and Athletic Bilbao. Milan was also the first Italian club to take part to the newly born European Cup in the 1955–56 season, and reached the final two years later, when they were defeated by Real Madrid.

The 1960s began with the debut of Milan's legend Gianni Rivera in 1960: he would remain with the club for the rest of his career for the following 19 seasons. In 1961, Nereo Rocco was appointed as new coach of the club, which under his leadership won immediately a scudetto in 1961–62, followed, in the next season, by Milan's first European Cup triumph, achieved after beating Benfica in the final. This success was repeated in 1969, with a 4–1 win over Ajax in the final, which was followed by the Intercontinental Cup title the same year. During this period Milan also won its ninth scudetto, its first Coppa Italia, with victory over Padova in the 1967 final, and two European Cup Winners' Cups in 1967–68 and 1972–73,

after defeating in the last match Hamburg and Leeds United respectively.

10th Scudetto and decline (1970–1986)

Domestically, the 1970s were characterized by the pursuit of the 10th Serie A title, which grants the winner the Scudetto star. For three years in a row, in 1971, 1972 and 1973, Milan ended up second in the league, after some memorable duels with Inter and Juventus. Finally, the achievement was reached in 1979. The same year saw the retirement of Gianni Rivera and the debut of Franco Baresi, at his first full season with the club.

After this success, the team went into a period of decline. The club in 1980 was involved in the Totonero scandal and as punishment was relegated to Serie B for the first time in its history. The scandal was centred around a betting syndicate paying players and officials to fix the outcome of matches. Milan achieved promotion back to Serie A at the first attempt, winning the 1980–81 Serie B title, but were again relegated a year later as the team ended its 1981–82 campaign in third-last place. In 1983, Milan won the Serie B title for the second time in three seasons to return to Serie A, where they achieved a sixth-place finish in 1983–84.