AC Milan chief Marco Fassone insists they expected UEFA to reject their financial fair play offer.

UEFA confirmed it had doubts over Milan's ability to repay a €300m loan owed to American hedge fund Elliott Management by next October, but Fassone assured a downgraded plan to appease the governing body was in the works.

“The decision was quite expected," he said in a video on the Rossoneri's official website.

“UEFA had requested documentation that referred to two things, which were practically impossible for the club to do: completing the refinancing of the debt with Elliot prior to its decision and showing an ability to finance ourselves and offset our losses.

“Now we're moving towards a Settlement Agreement. In a meeting at the start of November, we prepared a big document, with optimistic and less optimistic plans, showing the ways that Milan would cope with lower revenues from China, if they didn't arrive or did so at a performance not in line with expectations.

“The planning satisfied the committee, but they were being ultra-realistic: it was enough to say before that we needed a bank guarantee, and we'd have realised that it would've been impossible to get that far."