Chinese retailer Suning Holdings Group have announced their takeover of Serie A giants Inter Milan.
The Chinese group have purchased a 70 per cent stake in the club from the majority shareholder Erick Thohir, who was the president of Inter from 2013.
The fee is believed to be in the region of €270million and Suning group chairman, Zhang Jidong, has welcomed the deal as a pivotal moment for the expanding football market in China.
‘Ours is an international business and our brand will soon be big in Europe, too, now we have an alliance with an international and European top club’ he said.
Jidong added: ‘Football is growing at an incredible rate in China and the acquisition of Inter is a strategic move.’
Thohir will remain as president for the immediate future, but Honorary president Massimo Moratti, who ran the club between 1995 and 2013, is expected to step aside and abstain from any involvement in the Italian club.
Inter Milan are the third club in Serie A to succumb to foreign ownership, with AS Roma and Bologna also under oversees control.
The takeover signals a big moment in Chinese football, with its domestic Super League’s power plays in the transfer market causing already a seismic shift in the landscape of European football.
Several talented players have already fled Europe for the promise of huge pay packets in China, with the likes of Ezequiel Lavezzi, Jackson Martinez and former Premier League players Ramires and Demba Ba taking the trip to Asia.
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