Future of Sport: A Global Sports Week x Viva Technology Collaboration, Will Open in June 14
12 Jun 2023 14:59
Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, the former Spanish Prime Minister, attended the Silk Road Economic Belt Cities International Forum 2015 in Yiwu China on Thursday. In his speech, he called on more Chinese investors to connect with Spanish football related entities.
Up until Zaperato’s forum speech, we have already seen a range of sports related associations among Chinese investors and Spanish football entities such as Wanda’s investment in Atletico Madrid, Qianbao’s sponsorships of Real Sociedad and Rayo Vallecano and Oppo’s partnership with current La Liga holders Barcelona FC.
Wanda’s connection with Atletico Madrid, in particular, is highly rated as a win-win deal by Zapatero. He argued that Wanda Group is a powerful consortium and Atletico Madrid, a top football club, consequently the partnership between them would benefit both sides.
Throughout his speech, Zapatero continued to encourage Chinese consortiums to invest money in football related Spanish entities. He stated that assets in Spain are of high quality and are inexpensive therefore the timing would be right for Chinese investors to take advantage of these opportunities.
To some extent, Zapatero argument about being the right time to invest in Spanish entities especially in football is persuasive. Wanda’s investment in Atletico Madrid marked the first time that Chinese investors have ever made a real bid for more presence in international football. Except for Wang Jianlin’s efforts in pouring funds into one of the top clubs in La Liga, we have also seen hundreds of Chinese individuals raise money to crowdfund SD Eibar who were promoted to La Liga’s top flight in 2014.
Additionally, with the popularity of Spanish football, Chinese investors would reach a larger audience with new markets especially in the vast Spanish-speaking countries. "If you invest in Spain, you're opening up a Spanish-speaking market with a population of 500 million, including Spain, Latin America and North Africa," said Zapatero.
Source: Tencent, Ecns
Edited and Proofread by Raymond Fitzpatrick
Future of Sport: A Global Sports Week x Viva Technology Collaboration, Will Open in June 14
12 Jun 2023 14:59
Related coverage
CFA to run Youth Football League tournaments for 2017 China League clubs
09 Feb 2017
Suning close to buying into Inter Milan
02 Jun 2016
Weekly report (3/2/2015-8/2/2015)
11 Feb 2015
$7m investment for former Chinese e-game player
27 Apr 2016
What are the secrets and difficulties behind ICC China's largest tournament?
28 Apr 2017
More from Yutang Sports
Registration open - SportAccord World Sport & Business Summit
18 Dec 2023
HealthAccord spotlights mental health and female athlete well-being
08 Feb 2024
Meet the world-class speakers on SportAccord’s Plenary sessions
23 Feb 2024
Ingmar De Vos elected as the next ASOIF President
10 Apr 2024
Birmingham Welcomes the World as SportAccord 2024 Kicks Off
08 Apr 2024
Yutang Sports
loading...