Xi Jinping’s fandom helps fuel China’s world-beating splurge on soccer M&A

Soccer-related mergers and acquisition (M&A) activity in China in recent years has outpaced that of the rest of the world by a wide margin, partly due to the fandom of the country’s leader.

Between 2014 and 2016, mainland companies put €2.15 billion (HK$18.79 billion) into investments in soccer teams, or more than half the total global investment tracked by British cross-border M&A consultancy ThinkingLinking.

Based on the firm’s examination of 201 soccer-related deals by 41 countries worth €4.09 billion over the same period, China spent more than the remaining 40 countries combined, far outspending the No 2 investor, the United States, which chalked up €313 million in soccer M&A spending over the three years studied. “Never has one country risen so fast in the league, nor left the others so far behind,” said Mark Dixon, ThinkingLinking’s chief “thinking officer”.

“China has, without question, won the M&A Cup,” Dixon said.

China’s soccer-mad President Xi Jinping’s passion for ‘the beautiful game’ sparked while a child

The soccer buying spree partly reflects President Xi Jinping’s ambitious goal of making China a global football superpower before 2050. In 2011, Xi, an avid fan, revealed his dream: that the nation would someday qualify for, host and win the World Cup.