Bitter farewell from home fans for AC Milan (News Feature)

By Alberto Cagliano May 25, 2009, 10:42 GMT

Rome - AC Milan's retiring captain Paolo Maldini and club president Silvio Berlusconi were the target of protests at the weekend as the Devils played their last home game of the season.

A 3-2 defeat against Roma left Milan at risk to slip from third to fourth place when they visit Fiorentina Sunday in the season finale.

Finishing fourth in the Serie A would send Milan into a qualifying series for the next European Champions League.

Commentators on Monday noted that the defeat only added to the bitter chants and banners that die-hard fans had prepared ahead of the game at the Giuseppe Meazza.

'I'm proud not to be one of them,' the 40-year-old Maldini said after banners from fans criticized him as he closed a 25-year career entirely spent at Milan.

After 901 games, seven Serie A titles and five continental championships, Maldini was surprised to read that he had 'lacked respect to those who made you rich.'

There were both cheers and jeers as he made his last run around the pitch at game's end, and on the stands he also had to watch an oversize jersey of Franco Baresi, whom he replaced as captain.

Polemic confrontations with fans in the past could explain a behaviour that la Repubblica's Fabrizio Bocca considered worth 'a prize for stupidity.'

But there were banners and chants also against Berlusconi, the media magnate turned politician who has owned the club since 1986 and can boast the same impressive amount of trophies as by Maldini.

The stadium's south curve has not forgiven the president for the seemingly imminent firing of coach Carlo Ancelotti and maintained its criticism on the club's allegedly wrong transfer campaign.

The conservative politician, who is serving a third term as Italy's prime minister, was criticized for the rumoured sale of Brazil star Kaka and was rudely invited to quit the club.

A banner saying 'For years you have bought lemons and for-show players. Are you buying showgirls this year?' referred to recent polemics on Berlusconi's tendency to candidate young attractive women for his Popolo delle Liberta party.

There were also hints at a divorce that Berlusconi's wife has asked for, with a banner linking the marital crisis to that of the team.

La Repubblica, which has often been been critic of the prime minister, wrote that accusing him of not spending for Milan 'is a colossal idiocy.'