Two of Italy's top football clubs, Inter Milan and its arch rival AC Milan, say they have been approached by Chinese groups either seeking a stake or offering strategic partnerships.

In moves that could indicate the latest Chinese foray into European football, a 12-person delegation from Suning Commerce Group, one of China's largest privately owned retailers, visited Inter Milan on April 22-23. Club chief spokesman Robert Faulkner says the visiting delegation was headed by the chairman of Nanjing-based Suning, Zhang Jindong,

AC Milan meanwhile says it has received several expressions of interest in acquiring a stake, including from some Chinese groups. Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is chairman of the club and his company Fininvest is the holding company for AC Milan.

Italy's La Repubblica newspaper reported that Alibaba founder Jack Ma is heading up a group that is aiming to buy an initial 70 percent stake in the club, with the option of acquiring the remaining 30 percent over the coming year.

The Chinese billionaire and his associates are prepared to pay 400 million euros ($450 million) for the 70 percent stake, the newspaper said.

But Ma told China's Sina Sports on April 28 that he is not going to buy AC Milan.

Analysts say the recent moves on Milan clubs fit a broader effort by Chinese interests to invest in European football.

"As China pursues its sport industry vision and its football goals, it is highly likely that we will see more European club acquisitions," says Simon Chadwick, professor of sports enterprise at Salford Business School in Manchester.

Buying a European football club is a great way of learning how to run all aspects of the game and can also generate revenue, says Chadwick.

Strong Chinese interest in European football stems in part from the ambition revealed by Chinese President Xi Jinping to raise the quality of soccer in China, with an eye to winning a World Cup bid and perhaps one day winning the tournament.

The most prominent acquisitions so far are the purchase of a 13 percent stake in the company that owns Manchester City football club, worth $400 million, by China Media Capital and CITIC Capital, and the 20 percent of shares in Spanish football club Atletico Madrid bought by Chinese billionaire Wang Jianlin's Dalian Wanda.

At Fininvest, spokesman Simone Finotello said no deal on AC Milan had been finalized. "There is still not a well-defined timetable; the dialog is ongoing. The decision to sell or not a share of the club and the definition of the size of this share will be taken by AC Milan's chairman, Mr Silvio Berlusconi," Finotello said.

Inter Milan's Faulkner says Suning discussed a potential strategic partnership between Inter Milan and Suning Commerce Group, including potential capital investment from the retail group and branding opportunities in China.

Faulkner says Inter Milan has been in talks with three or four potential investors, but "the discussions with Suning are probably at the most advanced stage as they came to visit us in Milan".

Chinese interest in Italy's Serie A clubs is inevitable, given the country's love of Italian football, which was one of the first foreign leagues screened in China in the 1980s.

"One of the key issues in Italy is that the clubs are inexpensive, so they're relatively cheap to buy and the ownership is not regulated in the same way as it is in Germany," says Chadwick, adding that outside investors are currently unable to acquire outright control of a German club because of the so-called 50+1 rule.

"It means that the fans always have a majority share in their club and I think it's an acknowledgment by the German football association and by the German government that football clubs play a special socio-cultural role," Chadwick adds.

Lara Wolfe contributed to this story.

wangmingjie@mail.chinadailyuk.com

(China Daily European Weekly 04/29/2016 page3)