Milan Cricket and Football Club (now AC Milan) was the collective brainchild of a small group of bored and mildly inebriated British expats who got together in a Milan tavern back in 1899.

It had been a boozing session with a difference. Conversation had turned to football and cricket. The six men pined most for the summer sound of bat smacking ball. Why not, one suggested, form a club in Milan? Pencil and paper were fetched. A document was drawn up - and into the world crept the Milan Cricket and Football Club.

Two days later, the Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper recorded the event with a single paragraph. The 20th century was two weeks away and Italy had other things on its mind than a club with a modest ambition: "To spread the game of football and to play cricket as widely as possible."