Former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has accepted the offer from a Chinese consortium to acquire 80 percent of the Italian Serie A soccer club AC Milan, and a preliminary agreement will be signed next week, a person familiar with the negotiations told China Daily.

"A deal in principle has been reached, and the two parties will be signing the official preliminary agreement between 12 to 13 July, during which the Chinese investor group will pay a deposit of about 100 million euros ($110.7 million) as a guarantee," said the source from the Italian side.

The deposit will be non-refundable should the deal fail to go through, the source said, adding that "if all goes well as planned, the closing signing of the deal will be expected in September".