Inter Expected to Keep Current Front Office Regardless

Giuseppe Marotta expressed his hope Steven Zhang would stay at the helm during the Scudetto celebration, but that would be a surprise following his stern statement about Oaktree. Despite the looming ownership change, the whole management and Simone Inzaghi are firmly expected to stay put, Corriere della Sera informed.

The future of the team will be clear in the next 48/72 hours. The takeover wouldn’t be automatic if the Chinese entrepreneur didn’t reimburse his €375M debt by Tuesday. A short-term postponement could still happen.

Instead, Oaktree would have to give Zhang the difference between what the sum owed and the value of Inter. An expert would determine it afterwards, La Repubblica informed.

The America fund has ostracized any alternative solution as they have reservations the Nerazzurri owner would ever be able to settle his debt. He has been sentenced to give €320M back to the China Construction Bank in September 2022. They figured that if he hadn’t repaid a government body, they had even fewer chances.

Zhang tried to find a workaround with Pimco, but the deal fell through due to some clauses about the sale of Inter that Oaktree wanted to enforce. That slowed down the process, causing the other party to back down.

The prospective new owners might look to further mend the team finances to make it more palatable before flipping it. Elliott did the same with Milan in recent years.