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Football boss left red-faced over prank call

AC Milan CEO Adriano Galliani has been left red-faced after being tricked into revealing the club will not sack embattled coach Filippo Inzaghi during a prank telephone call on Italian radio.

Galliani also unwittingly revealed potential transfer targets to the audience of radio station RDS.

Milan have slipped to 11th in the league, 23 points behind leaders Juventus and were ousted from the Italian Cup on Tuesday by 10-man Lazio.

Consequently, Galliani has become a target for unhappy fans and on Tuesday fell victim to the radio prankster, who pretended to be president of rival club Sampdoria, Massimo Ferrari.

The prankster quizzed Galliani if Inzaghi would be sacked if Milan lost to Lazio in Tuesday's last eight tie.

"No, unless there is a massive catastrophe we'll stick with him until the end of the season, then we'll see," said Galliani.

Galliani was also asked which strikers the club had targeted to shore up their ineffective attack.

"I'm looking for a centre-forward on loan and I will sign (Pablo) Osvaldo or (Mattia) Destro," said Galliani, before asking the fake Ferrero: "Are you planning to loan (Stefano) Okaka out? If so, then I'll be in touch."

In recent days Milan have been linked with Inter striker Osvaldo, who has been suspended after failing to turn up for training for several days, as well as Roma striker Destro.

Reports in La Gazzetta dello Sport on Wednesday said Milan had "agreed terms" with Roma to take Destro on loan until the end of the season for €700,000 with the option of a permanent move costing Milan a further 16m.

However, the report added that talks to take Italian striker Okaka from Sampdoria, who have recently signed Luis Muriel (Udinese) and Samuel Eto'o (Everton) were "ongoing".

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MILAN

Romanian billionaire and seven others die in Milan plane crash

A light aircraft piloted by Romanian billionaire Dan Petrescu crashed into an empty office building near Milan on Sunday, killing him, his wife and son, and all five others aboard.

Police and rescue teams outside the office building where a small plane crashed in the Milan suburb of San Donato.
Police and rescue teams outside the office building where a small plane crashed in the Milan suburb of San Donato on October 3rd. Photo: Miguel Medina/AFP

The single-engine Pilatus PC-12 had taken off from Milan’s Linate airport shortly after 1pm headed for Olbia in the north of the Italian island of Sardinia.

It crashed just a few minutes later into a building in San Donato Milanese, a town southeast of Milan, according to aviation agency ANSV, which has opened an investigation.

Witnesses said the plane was already in flames before it crashed into an office building undergoing renovations.

Petrescu’s 65-year-old wife, who also had French nationality, and their son Dan Stefano, 30, were killed.

Italian media identified the other passengers as entrepreneur Filippo Nascimbene, a 33-year-old from Lombardy, with his wife, young son and mother-in-law, who have French nationality.

Petrescu, 68, was one of Romania’s richest men. He headed a major construction firm and owned a string of hypermarkets and malls. He also held Germany nationality, the Corriere della Sera newspaper reported.

Flames engulfed the two-storey building, next to the yellow line subway terminus.

“The impact was devastating,” Carlo Cardinali, of the Milan fire brigade, told news agency Ansa.

Deputy prosecutor Tiziana Siciliano was quoted by Corriere as saying that the plane’s black box had been recovered.

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