Thu, Mar 30, 2023
Newsweek
Sports

Southampton FC Subject to '£190 Million Chinese Takeover'

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Southampton FC's Sofiane Boufal, left.
Sofiane Boufal of Southampton, left, at White Hart Lane, London, March 19. Southampton is the reported subject of a takeover bid by Chinese company Lander Sports Investment. Warren Little/Getty
Sports Southampton Chinese Football Premier League Sport

Southampton, the English Premier League club, is the subject of a £190 million takeover bid by a Chinese company, according to reports.

Lander Sports Development announced in January that it had agreed to buy a stake in Southampton, although those negotiations concluded unsuccessfully. But it has now returned with an improved offer that The Times claims has satisfied Southampton's owner, Katharina Liebherr, into giving up 100 per cent of the business.

Southampton would become the second Premier League club to pass into Chinese ownership, after West Bromwich Albion, which is owned by construction magnate Guochuan Lai.

It would also fit into a broader pattern in recent years of Chinese investment in major European clubs. Both Atletico Madrid and Inter Milan are now under Chinese minority and majority ownership.

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