BEFORE THE SEASON started, Zlatan Ibrahimovic defined Milan Futuro, AC Milan's freshly formed under-23 side, as a "copy and paste" of the first team. He was right, but not in the way he intended.

Days after Milan lost the Coppa Italia final, blowing their only chance of salvaging a miserable season that could end without European qualification, Milan Futuro were relegated from Serie C to Serie D, the semi-professional fourth tier where many teams have gone to die. There you'll find the sad remains of Messina, Reggina, Siena, and Chievo Verona, along with other teams who've gone bankrupt.

Once you fall that far, it's hard to climb back up. Serie D is divided into nine regional divisions of around 20 teams, and while the winners of each are granted a place back in the professional ranks of Serie C, many fail to meet the requirements to become professional in the first place. The fields are often in brutal shape, and some of the players and staff have side jobs.

Milan Futuro won't get much out of playing that far down the pyramid. The whole point of the project was to give Milan's best youngsters the experience of playing professionally before making the jump up to Serie A. The club spent €15 million to get the under-23s off the ground, but like the first team, it went into rescue mode in January, prioritizing survival with the signings of Serie C veterans at the expense of playing time for others.

It didn't work. A 2-0 loss to SPAL in Saturday's Serie C relegation playoff overturned Milan Futuro's 1-0 advantage from the first leg. Francesco Camarda, Milan's 17-year-old jewel of a striker, couldn't play in the game because he didn't meet the threshold for appearances.

Former Milan players Massimo Oddo and Mauro Tassotti relieved Daniele Bonera on the bench in February, and while they helped lift Milan Futuro off the foot of the Serie C table, their presence alone wasn't enough to save the team from the drop.