MANCHESTER, England — Manchester City accused AC Milan today of reneging on an agreement to sell Kaka to the Premier League club and blamed the Brazil star's father for being too greedy.

City executive chairman Garry Cook sharply criticized the Serie A club, a day after leading the team's delegation to Milan hoping to complete the world-record transfer of almost 100 million pounds ($147 million; €111 million).

The proposal fell through Monday night with Milan and the Brazilian announcing that he was staying in Italy.

"Milan bottled it — they lost their nerve," Cook said in an interview with two reporters. "They had agreed to sell their prize possession and we had agreed to buy him. We had decided to build a business model around it which was a little sophisticated for them to understand."

Cook met Monday with Kaka's father and chief adviser, Bosco Leite, and presented a vision that City thought would appeal to Kaka's deeply religious side.

"We really believed and we do believe Kaka has the capability to be the next global ambassador for the game," Cook said. "We wanted to help develop that through a foundation. He is truly a humanitarian of the highest order and we truly respect him not only for his capabilities for this, but also his approach to humanity and we wanted to work on it.

"We believed and his father believed that these were all issues standing in the way of getting an offer — but he wanted an offer."

Cook believes that Leite was only interested in the financial rewards for his son.

"There was Stage 1 — Milan. Stage 2 — what's the plan? Stage 3 — what's the offer?" Cook said. "He wanted the offer. He did not want to sit and talk about the rest of the stuff. ...

"We would have put resources there to help build his foundation and truly send a message to global football about what great players can do that is not related to money. He used the term it is not just about money. The irony was it was about money. It was just too sophisticated."

Cook said City still plans to turn City into a global football force, noting Monday's signing of Craig Bellamy, a 29-year-old striker who appeared in only 24 league matches and scored seven goals in 18 months at West Ham.

"If we don't get Kaka it is not the end of the world, we got Craig Bellamy," Cook said.