Spending spree fueled by Xi's aim to create sports economy worth $850b by 2025
Chinese investors are making unprecedented inroads into professional soccer in the UK and elsewhere in Europe.
They are being spurred on by the twin goals of investing overseas and President Xi Jinping's stated aim of making China a soccer powerhouse.
In the latest example, Reuters reported Chinese brokerage Everbright Securities and Beijing Baofeng Technology, an internet entertainment company, as saying they are behind a deal to buy a 65 percent stake in MP & Silva, a sports media rights firm. The deal values the company at more than $1 billion.
A Chinese group has also agreed to buy an initial 70 percent of Italian Serie A club AC Milan from former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, a person familiar with the negotiations told China Daily.
Behind the sudden surge of interest is Xi's determination to create a sports economy worth nearly $850 billion by 2025, according to Simon Chadwick, professor of sports enterprise at Salford University in the UK.
"When you think about it, that's extraordinary. At present, you have a worldwide sports economy worth about $400 billion. Yet one country is looking to double that by 2025 for itself alone," he said.
He has seen a change of emphasis in Chinese investment since the start of this year, from the straightforward acquisition of clubs, or stakes in clubs, to investing in soccer service organizations, such as sports agents and organizing bodies such as FIFA.
"It's a sort of integrated supply chain strategy, by investing in and attempting to control the sport from grassroots to elite levels," Chadwick said.
