China enters the ball game

Forget the London clubs. Forget Manchester. Forget Paris, Monaco and Rome. The most significant foreign investment in European football came last week and it’s not Russian, Arab or American but Chinese, writes David Shonfield.

That seems an exaggerated claim to make about a modest 20%, €45 million, stake in Atletico Madrid. After all, Atletico sold Diego Costa for almost that amount last summer, even if half the money went to third parties.

However, the Dalian Wanda Group is no ordinary investor and its chairman and founder Wang Jianlin is no common or garden multi-billionaire.