AC Milan’s audacious plan to play a historic Serie A game in Perth may have been derailed — but their rivals’ coach does not think it was the worst idea in the world.

Inter Milan coach Cristian Chivu said more consideration needed to be given to selling Serie A around the world as his side prepared to take on AC Milan at Optus Stadium on Wednesday night.

It will mark the first time Milan have played in Perth since a grand plan was hatched by the WA State Government for the Rossoneri to take on fellow Serie A side Como in a competitive fixture at Optus Stadium.

It would have been the first Italian league match to be held outside of Italy and despite protests from fans, critique from players and tempered objections from governing bodies, the plan appeared to have some legs and received some conditional approvals.

However, the proposed game — which would have taken place in February — fell apart late last year, with the State Government blaming “unacceptable” demands suggested by the Asian Football Confederation as too prohibitive.

Chivu said while the plan to play the match in mid-season maybe was not appealing, he did think the idea in theory was not the worst.

“What I suggest probably is the start of the season, like in cycling, like the first two days in the Tour de France, the season started in a different country,” he said.

“I don’t remember what was it, but probably the first game of the season would be a perfect fit because you have time to come maybe a week earlier.

“You play the first game and then you go back knowing that the second game is a big competition. It’s not easy, but at least it’s a start.

“Promoting Italian football, it’s something important. Everybody desires that, but nobody does anything.

“It’s a good idea for the future that we should start promote more and more, especially in this part of the world because it is a special place for everyone and everybody is keen to see teams from Europe playing.”

The long-haul travel involved in ferrying European teams down to Australia for games was one critique levelled at the proposed Serie A game in Perth.

While AC Milan coach Ruben Amorim was not asked about his club’s previous plan, he did offer an insight into the complications of overseas pre-season tours — but was quick to express his love for Perth.

“The weather is really good to work. The facilities are really good. Thank you very much to all the authorities and everyone that provides us. We have all the best conditions to do our job,” he said.

“Sometimes the travelling is the only (bad) part. You lose like three days because you have the jet-lag, you have to recover the players, so you need to manage that.

“The games are too near, so you don’t have time to train between. The flaws that you see here, you cannot work (on) for the next game.

“But if you talk me about the place and the facilities and especially the people, it’s the perfect place to prepare for the season.”