Sheffield United buys 90 pct stake in China club
(AP)
Updated: 2006-01-12 14:55

England's Sheffield United has bought a 90 percent stake in China's Chengdu Five Bull, becoming the first foreign club to acquire a team in the struggling Chinese professional leagues.

Sheffield United officials confirmed the deal Wednesday and chairman Kevin McCabe was on hand at a news conference in the southwestern Chinese city on Thursday to relaunch the club, now named Chengdu Sheffield United.

Terms of the deal weren't disclosed, but United will send two coaches to the Chinese second-division club, Chinese media reports said Thursday.

Calls to the Chengdu club's offices were unanswered Thursday and McCabe was not immediately available for comment.

Sheffield United, which plays in England's League Championship, just below the Premier League, has moved aggressively into Chinese soccer in recent years, signing one of China's best-known players, veteran international Hao Haidong.

The English club also runs the Hainan Soccer Academy in the country's southern island province. This week it hired defender Zhang Yaokun on loan from the Chinese Super League club Dalian Shide until the end of the season.

The purchase of Chengdu was likely a bargain for Sheffield. Five Bull has been run by the Chengdu Soccer Association since it's previous owner, a state-run company, was forced to sell its shares last year.

Soccer's popularity in this nation of 1.3 billion people continues to draw foreign commercial interest. Real Madrid last year signed on to provide sporting, commercial and managerial support to Beijing Guo'an in return for the top-level team's owners boosting the Spanish club's brand in China.

Former Chinese champion Shenzhen Jianlibao also has a coaching and management partnership with Scotland's Glasgow Rangers. In both cases, financial terms of the deals weren't announced.