China’s Rupert Murdoch eyes foreign sports

After spending a record amount on the broadcasting rights for China’s top football division, Li Ruigang is looking overseas, where he already owns a stake in Manchester City.

After paying a record-breaking Rmb8 billion $1.3 billion for the five-year broadcasting rights to Chinese Super League football and buying a chunk of oil-backed English soccer club Manchester City, Li Ruigang is eyeing more high-quality sports assets globally, the Chinese media mogul said on Wednesday at the Boao Forum in Hainan.

Sport, which accounted for just 0.64% of Chinese GDP in 2014, is on the cusp of something big, with football leading the way as the country flexes its financial muscles in search of top-quality assets, including a growing line of soccer players from South America and Europe. But it’s not just football that the chairman of state-backed investment firm...

¬ Haymarket Media Limited. All rights reserved.

FinanceAsia has updated its subscription model.

Registered readers now have the opportunity to read 5 articles from our award-winning website for free.

To obtain unlimited access to our award-winning exclusive news and analysis, we offer subscription packages, including single user, team subscription (2-5 users), or office-wide licences.

To help you and your colleagues access our proprietary content, please contact us at [email protected], or +(852) 2122 5222

Article limit is reached.

Hello! You have used up all of your free articles on FinanceAsia.

To obtain unlimited access to our award-winning exclusive news and analysis, we offer subscription packages, including single user, team subscription (2-5 users), or office-wide licences. To help you and your colleagues access our proprietary content, please contact us at [email protected], or +(852) 2122 5222