When the news broke this month that EPL side West Bromwich Albion was "to be taken over" by Chinese company Yunyi Guokai, "many were left looking for answers," according to Paul MacInnes of the London GUARDIAN. The group which had bought former Chair Jeremy Peace's controlling stake "was not exactly a household name." Alongside new League Championship side Aston Villa Owner Tony Xia and the Fosun Group, which recently completed the acquisition of Wolverhampton Wanderers, "these investors have conducted what looks like a Chinese takeover of West Midlands football this summer." It "may extend further too, with Chinese investors in discussions to take over Hull City." Do these recent deals "amount to anything more than a coincidence?" There is certainly "good reason to believe the acquisitions have not happened by chance." The Chinese government has the aim of "making China a world footballing power." It has "prompted a tidal wave of spending." It has also meant "a splurge of investment in European clubs" from Atlético Madrid to Man City and even a "controversial involvement in the Portuguese second division." Investing in a "prestige business such as football makes straightforward business sense for Chinese companies."
A BIGGER PLAN: China-based FTI Consulting Managing Dir Paul Marriott said that "it was the strength of West Brom as a business that made it attractive to Yunyi Guokai." He said, "It's a club that's been run very well and has been profitable for many years." Marriott said of the "synergy that Yunyi Guokai will hope to get" from its new business, "The planning of new towns in China has sport at its heart. This includes building facilities for children and adults. The West Brom training ethos can be a model for that." Salford University professor of sports enterprise Simon Chadwick believes that Chinese investment in U.K. clubs, and specifically those in the West Midlands, "could serve an even broader political purpose." Chadwick: "Recent moves are entirely consistent with other industrial sectors where we have seen a state-driven form of capitalism emerge in which investors and corporations appear to have been working in coordinated ways. Add to this the British government’s active courting of Chinese investors, especially using football as a lever, and one can hypothesize a scenario in which Wolves, Villa and West Brom haven't just been independently acquired for football reasons alone" (GUARDIAN, 8/17).
