Wanda, founded in 1988 and known for its real estate success, once owned China's top professional football team Dalian Wanda but sold the club in 2000 over disillusionment with a league rife with corruption and scandals.
Wang Jianlin is no doubt the most experienced football investor among the Chinese billionaires. In a bid to raise the level of Chinese football, he has provided financial aid to more than 100 Chinese teenagers for advanced training in Spain.
Wang also admitted that the purchase of Infront might help China's potential bid for a World Cup. "Infront's rich and valuable resources in football might help China eventually realize the dreams of qualifying for a World Cup again, hosting a World Cup and winning a World Cup," said Wang.
In March, China's central reform group, captained by President Xi Jinping, approved a plan to revive Chinese football. "We must develop and revitalize football to ensure we are a strong nation of sports," said an statement from the group.
In April, Chinese media group Ti'ao Power acquired the copyrights of the Chinese national football teams at the price of 70 million yuan (about 11 million dollars) a year.
But the most thrilling story came in September when Ti'ao Power won the bid for the producing and broadcasting rights of the Chinese Super League (CSL) games for the next five seasons at a price of 8 billion yuan (about 1.25 billion dollars). In 2013, the CSL earned only 370 million yuan (about 60 million dollars) from sales of broadcasting rights and sponsorship.
It is believed that all CSL teams will benefit from the huge investment. With strong financial backing, Guangzhou Evergrande has signed up Brazil star coach Luiz Felipe Scolari, and Shandong Luneng, another Chinese Super League giant, acquired another former Brazilian national team coach Mano Menezes. A group of foreign footballers, mainly from Brazil, have been lured to the Chinese Super League as well.
In November, China toymaker Rastar Group paid 78 euros a share in cash for 56 percent stake in Spanish first division club Espanyol. The move showed the increased interest of Chinese companies in Spanish football with Rayo Vallecano and Real Sociedad both being sponsored by Chinese company Q-Bao.
BRIGHT FUTURE
As China's sports industry further expands, it will become more and more attractive to domestic and foreign investors.
Statistics show that China's sports industry accounted for 0.5 percent of the GDP in 2008. It took six years for China to raise the figure to 0.6 and only one year to 0.7.
As the portal to the "gold mine" is unlocked, China's sports industry is on a high-speed train and it strikes a win-win for both China and abroad.
