By Tenzin Dharpo
DHARAMSHALA, FEB. 18: The Chinese government has reportedly impeded a business deal of a Chinese company to buy out a major European football club from Milan due to last October’s move by the city to make the exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama an honorary citizen, which the Chinese government vehemently objected.
The Chinese authorities have obstructed the Sino-Europe Sports Investment Management Changxing from transferring funds from China to complete the 740-million-euro ($785 million) deal, to buyout Milan based Italian football club AC Milan.
The buyout deal that first surfaced in August last year between an unnamed Chinese investor group and former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was scheduled to be completed in December last year but is now moved to next month due to bureaucratic red tape. According to sporadic reports in the Italian media, the Chinese investors were named to be China Huarong Asset Management although the company itself hasn’t acknowledged the same.
The obstruction by concerned authorities in transferring funds has meant that stalemate could go on further for months to come. Bloomberg news agency which cited an unnamed source as the lead in their report stated that the remaining payment may still be blocked by Chinese government. Both parties in the deal have declined to respond to queries from Bloomberg.
“Unable to transfer its money out of China, the consortium had to draw on accounts based in the British Virgin Islands to make a second, 100-million-euro deposit on the team in December. The deadline to close the deal has been pushed back from December to March, and SES plans to pay the remaining 320 million euros from overseas accounts to bypass Chinese controls,” the report stated.
The latest reports from the Italian media also suggest that the weekend clash between AC Milan and Fiorentina at the iconic San Siro stadium will be last game of club owner Berlusconi.
Another Milan club that shares the San Siro stadium as their home ground, Inter Milan is also owned by Chinese company Sunings Holding Group who bought majority stake of the club last August. If the proposed deal for AC Milan falls through next month after months of Chinese government obstruction, the next Milan derby will have very Chinese presence in the owner’s box.
