China's DDMC, in partnership with Swiss company Fortis, last week signed a deal with the Asian Football Confederation for exclusive rights to market the body's commercial properties for eight years, according to Nazvi Careem of the SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST. However, a key line uttered by DDMC Fortis Chair Yi Rentao "provided a less-than-subtle indication of China's plans for the future." Yi said, "We see this partnership as an opportunity for DDMC to carry out the important 'Belt and Road' strategy." Much "can be gleaned" from Yi's linking of the football deal to Chinese President Xi Jinping's "Belt and Road Initiative" -- China's multi-billion dollar plan to provide infrastructure development across the globe, which has been criticized as "a form of financial colonialism on countries who are unable to pay their debts." The link may be sending a message that DDMC, which is said to have "struggled to pay the first two tranches" of its reported $4B commitment to the AFC from '21-28, will be protected from "going down in the same way" that Europe-based, China majority-owned MP Silva went into administration last month because of a lack of funding. There is also the suggestion that while the Chinese government has "clamped down" on unnecessary global investments in sport, the DDMC's BRI platform "may give it special status and a proxy to strengthen China's influence over Asian football" and, eventually, FIFA. Salford Business School sports enterprise professor Simon Chadwick said, "At one level, my feeling is this is a cunning political sleight of hand on the part of DDMC. Over the last 18 months, the Chinese government has been clamping down on what it believes to be errant investments in football, especially when they have an overseas dimension. ... At another level, though, the deal renews the message that China remains committed to becoming a global force in football, not just in playing terms but also commercially and politically" (SCMP, 11/5).
