AC Milan sports chief Umberto Gandini admits a lack of Champions League football has hit them hard.
Gandini says their failure has been felt financially.
"The cost of not being in the Champions League is very heavy, frankly speaking," Gandini said.
"For an Italian club in the Champions League today we can talk about guaranteed money of 35-40m and if you have a turnover of 220m it's a big share of it.
"Luckily enough, we had provisions of variables into the salaries of the players, some of them can be amortized over time but on the other hand it is critical for us to go back to the Champions League, ideally this season.
"We cannot deny the fact we didn't qualify for Europe has been a turning point in a certain way.
"We had to regroup and try to improve the value of the squad and try to regain our position among the top clubs in Europe.
"It's very, very important even if it not going to be easy."
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