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Jack Ma’s Alibaba to buy AC Milan for €700mln - reports

Last updated: 12:58 27 Apr 2016 BST, First published: 07:58 27 Apr 2016 BST

AC Milan football (soccer) players
The takeover could reignite AC Milan, which has fallen behind Europe’s elite clubs.

Alibaba Group Holdings (NYSE:BABA) is reportedly making a move into European football (soccer) with a €700mln deal to by AC Milan from controversial Italian businessman and Italy’s former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Representatives of Alibaba are said to be meeting with Berlusconi in Italy today.

Alibaba is China’s major e-commerce group and is part owner of Weibo, the giant Chinese social network which is essentially the People's Republic's answer to Facebook.

Not only would a deal be marked as another major acquisition of a European club by rich foreign investors, but also underscore China's growing influence on the global soccer scene.

And the apparent sale comes amid talk that Europe’s elite clubs have considered a lucrative break-away European Super League, to replace the Champions League club competition currently run and marketed by UEFA.

Alibaba’s Jack Ma is already co-owner of Guangzhou Evergrande, the largest team in the Chinese Super League.

Marcello Lippi, Italy’s former World Cup winning national coach, is currently manager of Guangzhou Evergrande though media reports suggest he may return to Italy to oversee AC Milan’s sporting operations should the takeover go ahead.

Ma and Alibaba would become the latest billionaire owners among Europe’s elite clubs - alongside the Middle Eastern and Russian oil billionaire owners of Manchester City, Paris St-Germain and Chelsea.

US owners also have an influential voice in the sport, which unlike major American sports does not have strict rules regarding revenue sharing or salary caps.

New York listed Manchester United (NYSE:MANU) remains majority owned, and almost entirely controlled, by the Florida based Glazer family (who also own the Tampa Bay Buccaneers NFL franchise).

John Henry and Tom Werner’s Fenway Sports Group own Liverpool FC, as well as Major League Baseball’s Boston Red Sox. Arsenal’s majority shareholder is Stan Kroenke, who owns and has just moved the Rams NFL franchise to Los Angeles from St Louis.

The potential for investment into the club could also have the potential to reignite the fortunes of both AC Milan, which has fallen behind Europe’s elite clubs in recent years, and could revitalise interest in Italy’s Serie A which since its 1990’s heyday ranks after the English Premier League, Spain’s La Liga and Germany’s Bundesliga.

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