As far as I can ascertain, it’s an urban myth, but one so telling that it found its way on to the front page of Corriere della Sera, Italy’s most respected newspaper. AC Milan supporters are apparently so annoyed and disgusted by the side that, rather than frequenting the San Siro, they order some pizza and fire up the DVD player to relive the glory years.

And, to be fair, they have plenty to choose from, whether it’s the 5-0 trouncing of Real Madrid in 1989, the Fabio Capello-inspired 4-0 demolition of Johan Cruyff’s Barcelona in the 1994 Champions League final or, perhaps more sadly, compilations of Kaká’s time with the Rossoneri.

Like all good urban myths, it serves to answer a question. Milan have 15,622 fewer season ticket-holders than last season so where are they and what do they do during matches?

No other number highlights the decline in faith among the Rossoneri faithful as clearly. And what is curious is that, if you take Milan out of the mix, overall season-ticket sales in Serie A have risen slightly, suggesting that the malaise concerns, above all, the Rossoneri, as well as proving that you can’t blame the decline on the economy.

If the whereabouts and activities of the Rossoneri no-shows are mysteries, the reasons they abandoned the club are not. Simply put, Milan aren’t very good. Yesterday they struggled to draw 1-1 away to Atalanta and on Wednesday they were defeated at home in the Champions League by FC Zurich, who are mid-table in the not-so-competitive Swiss league.

But it’s not just about results. The past few seasons have been marked by a sense of permanent decline, one that the club’s European success has done little to paper over. You can argue that since 2004 the club have bought only one expensive bona fide superstar: Alberto Gilardino, who has left. And before you question his superstar credentials, consider the fact that he was 22 at the time and had scored 50 goals over two seasons.

Most of Milan’s other signings have been very young (some, such as Alexandre Pato, turned out very well, most others did not) or the wrong side of 30 (Gianluca Zambrotta, Emerson) or big names who had gone off the boil (Ronaldinho is the epitome of this category). Contrast this with the first 15 years of the Silvio Berlusconi era, up until the turn of the millennium, when Milan spent freely and attracted the world’s top talent.

Milan officials are loath to admit it, but it seems that over the past five years the club’s focus has changed. Rather than bold moves, there have been endless tweaks (usually supposedly “quick-fix” veterans, such as Jaap Stam) — and “calculated risks” (Ronaldinho and, before him, the original Ronaldo come to mind).

Most agreed that, as the squad grew older, rebuilding was necessary, but year after year it was put off. Not because the club failed to see the need to start again, but because success in Europe (three Champions League finals in five seasons) helped to maintain the grand façade, even as the fundamentals were crumbling. Berlusconi was much like the owner of a stately home who, unwilling to spend on substantial refurbishment, applies the odd lick of paint here and there to keep up appearances.

Last summer the chickens came home to roost. And, much to the Milan fans’ annoyance, Berlusconi did not fully open the coffers. Kaká was let go for £68.5 million and only part of the funds went to reinforce the side. Yoann Gourcuff, who was player of the year in France last season, slipped through the club’s fingers in the most bone-headed way. They loaned him to Bordeaux, setting a buyback price of £13 million that, after the year he had, was a steal for the French club (he’s easily worth twice that). They offered £15 million for Luís Fabiano, the Brazil and Seville centre forward, failing to meet the asking price by just £2 million.

They then spent the money to buy Klaas-Jan Huntelaar from Real and the Dutchman has been a veritable bust thus far. As a result, instead of a front three of Pato, Gourcuff and Fabiano, they have Pato, Clarence Seedorf, 33, and Filippo Inzaghi, 36.

What is most galling to Milan fans, though, is the way the club continue to speak as if all this is part of some kind of grand plan.

Berlusconi, the consummate salesman, spoke of Leonardo, the new coach, helping Ronaldinho to reclaim his status as the best player in the world, which, unless he can mimic Scott Bakula in Quantum Leap and return him to 2005 or a parallel universe with no alcohol, nightclubs or women, is a physical impossibility.

Even the appointment of Leonardo, one of the most admired and loved men in football but also a man with zero experience in management, smacks of finding a human lightning rod to deal with an inherited mess.

In past seasons Milan fans bought into this combination of smoke-and-mirrors and P. T. Barnumesque salesmanship. Not this year.

Not the 15,622 who are MIA. For them, a “Best of Kaká” DVD or even a grainy video of Ruud Gullit bringing Real to their knees 20 years ago is probably better than watching what passes for Milan at the San Siro these days. And it’s definitely better than being played for a fool.

Fifa leaves it a little late to change rules on qualifying

If you’ve been following qualifying for next year’s World Cup, you’ll know that the eight best-placed runners-up in each European group will face each other in two-legged play-offs, with the winners gaining a place in the finals. What you might not have known, until last week, is that those play-offs will be seeded.

“We have decided on seeding the teams into two groups of four, taking the Fifa world rankings into account, with the top four in one pot and the other in another pot,” Sepp Blatter, the Fifa president, said last week.

What this effectively means is that we won’t see a potential France v Germany heavyweight play-off for a place in South Africa, should the nations finish second in their respective groups. Instead, the big boys will be kept apart.

That’s fair enough as a concept (though bad news if you’re, say, Ireland). What does seem a bit strange is that Fifa is only announcing it now. Aren’t you supposed to lay out the rules before you start a competition rather than making them up as you go along?