AC MILAN bosses said yesterday that the club are open to a “settlement agreement” with Uefa over a financial fair play investigation that threatens to derail the plans of the club’s new Chinese owners.

Uefa’s club financial control body will turn down Milan’s offer of a “voluntary agreement” to seek more credit, the Gazzetta dello Sport reported yesterday.

“Milan has always declared itself ready to face the other side of the coin, which is the settlement agreement,” the club said in response.

While Milan spent more than €200 million (£175m) on new players over the summer, there have been questions about the financial stability of the Chinese-led consortium that purchased the club from Silvio Berlusconi for £600m in April.

Milan reportedly had losses of £225m over the past three years and recently took a loan from US private equity firm Elliott worth more than £260m.

Milan chief executive Marco Fassone said the club has a refinancing plan that it expects to complete by April in order to repay Elliott.

Milan opened itself to Uefa scrutiny by qualifying for European competition this season for the first time in three years.

Possible punishments include limits on transfer spending, player salaries and squad sizes for Uefa competitions.

However, Milan is in eighth place in Serie A and might not qualify for Europe next season. In that case, eventual sanctions would probably not apply until the club returns to European competition.