Minor deal set to have major repercu repercussions in Chinese soccer landscape

First, there was mad rush by Chinese companies to invest in – or buy outright – soccer clubs from around the world.

But earlier this year, a number of senior officials appeared to apply the brakes to that process, pointedly mentioning that the long- term development of Chinese soccer was most definitely not at the center of many of these deals.

Now, though, it appears as if another trend may be starting.

CF Reus, a soccer club in Spain’s second tier, La Liga 2, has just purchased a 29 percent stake in Beijing Institute of Technology ( BIT) FC, a club in China League Two, the country’s third tier.

A deal between two largely unknown teams won’t register on the wider soccer radar, but the significance of this – believed to be the first time a Chinese club has received foreign investment since China’s recent soccer reforms – could be far- reaching.

From a logistical standpoint, funds were transferred to BIT from the Chinese affiliate of Hong Kong- based firm CSSB, which bought FC Reus in 2013.

But whatever way the money arrived, a precedent has now been set that sees foreign dollars in Chinese soccer.

The City Football Group ( CFG), which wholly owns Manchester City, Melbourne City and Uruguay’s Ckub Atletico Torque, as well as a controling interested in New York City FC and a minor share of Japan’s Yokohama Marinos, in which a Chinese consortium purchased a 13 percent stake in 2015, is known to have looked at various Chinese clubs to add to its growing network.

But it was presumed that China Media Capital and CITIC, the lead investors in CFG’s Chinese contingent, would find a way to make the investment purely domestic.

One of the most intriguing aspects of the Reus- BIT partnership is the declared intention to build a club up from the bottom and to do so the “right” way – teaching passionate students how to play technically sound soccer.

At the moment, BIT fields one professional team and one university team, and though the students have found success, the professional side was some- what overmatched once the money starting pouring into Chinese soccer, and was relegated from China League One in 2015.

The Spanish team behind the move believe that BIT can reach the top of China’s pyramid in a decade or more, with structure and development more important than massive investment.

But if this move creates a road map by which Chinese Super League clubs can be at least partly owned by overseas entities, Chinese soccer could soon become truly globalized.