Southampton, West Brom and Aston Villa’s spending power set to be affected with Chinese government stopping huge money leaving country
If fans of these clubs were expecting years of lavish spending, they may have to think again as Beijing cracks down on overseas investment
SPENDING power of Chinese-owned football clubs in the UK will be weakened in light of new directives coming out of Beijing.
That means fans of Southampton, West Brom, Aston Villa and Birmingham, who were expecting to see some lavish spending, will have to think again.
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The Chinese government has decided to crack down on overseas investment as it tries to keep state-earned cash in the country.
And that is bad news for fans of a whole host of clubs who have recently been taken over by Far East investment.
Another team who have already been splashing the cash as a result of a takeover by Fosun is Championship outfit Wolves.
This summer they have spent millions on the likes of Helder Costa (£13m) and Ruben Neves (£15.8m) having employed super agent Jorge Mendes.
But it might be a case of "enjoy it while it lasts" for fans of the Midlands outfit, as Beijing pushes ahead with a programme to limit capital outflows.
Ji Zhe, director at London-based sports marketing firm Red Lantern and an expert on Chinese football told AFP: "I think it will have an impact on current ownership.
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"Most of them will have to make continued significant investment into playing staff and all other areas of the football club in order to compete.
"This impact could then have a knock-on effect to the clubs as investment dries up.
"Chinese owners could realign their focus and the clubs can suffer both on and off the pitch."
The Midlands is an area that has seen Chinese investors get involved, with Recon Group, led by Dr Tony Xia, buying Aston Villa in June 2016.
Chinese Investment in England
- West Brom are owned by Guochuan Lai, who is the is the controlling shareholder and director of Yunyi Guokai (Shanghai) Sports Development Limited. He is worth around £2.8bn
- Aston Villa are owned by Dr Tony Xia, who is the chairman of Chinese company the Recon Group
- Wolves are owned by Chinese company Fosun International, headed up by Guo Guangchang
- Southampton sold 80 per cent of their shares to Chinese businessman Gao Jisheng this summer
- Birmingham are owned by Paul Suen Cho Hung, who has a net worth of over £440m and is the man behind Trillion Trophy Asia
- Manchester City sold 13 per cent of its shares for a whopping £265m to China Media capital
West Brom are under the ownership of Guochan Lai and Trillion Trophy Asia, led by Paul Suen, owns Birmingham.
Even Premier League outfit Manchester City are 13 per cent owned by China Media Capital, while 80 per cent of Southampton shares were bought by Jisheng Gao in the summer.
Zhe added: "The Chinese government has put a firm brake on the football boom as it continues to tackle the outbound flow of money."