European club claims 'no truth' in Newcastle United investment after Amanda Staveley comments

AC Milan's CEO has shut down speculation about Newcastle United's owners investing the Serie A side after numerous reports appeared in the Italian media over the past week.

Speaking to Sky Sport Italia ahead of Milan's Europa League match against Slavia Praha on Thursday, Giorgio Furlani said there was 'no truth' behind the rumours of a partnership between Milan and Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund- which owns 80% of United.

Il Sole 24 Ore reported on Wednesday that RedBird Capital managing partner Gerry Cardinale was in talks with PIF over the potential sale of the club's minority shares.

PIF have been linked to Milan, Inter as AS Roma for some time as it looks to create a multi-club model, however UEFA regulations could throw potential deals into doubt. According to the rules it's prohibited to have the same individual or legal entity from having control over more than one club in the same UEFA club competition.

However, in recent years there have been more and more exceptions. And it's something Newcastle United co-owner Amanda Staveley addressed yesterday.

Speaking at the Bloomberg Power Players' summit, Staveley said: "We very much are [looking at multi-club model]. Multi-club is part of football. It's a real benefit to be able to have players and train players that aren't part of your squad.

"The UEFA rules are changing so we have to see what emerges. The dynamics around whether we could have a club has changed dramatically over the last year.

"I'm still a very big fan of the multi-club model. A lot of other competitors and friends in the Premier League have multi-club relationships, but it has to be considered as a whole.

"We have looked at Belgium, we have looked at a lot of European markets. We have looked in Asia, Australia, Brazil - pretty much everywhere. We have looked at every market to see and getting players through our academy system and through that multi-club model would be very helpful in terms of allowing us to buy and have players part of our journey earlier on."