Borussia Dortmund: "You can get a Chinese investor, but we will never go this route" (H-J Watzke)

"You can get a Chinese investor, as Atletico Madrid has done. But we will never go down this route," said Hans-Joachim Watzke, president of Borussia Dortmund (Bundesliga), on 10/08/2016.

Wanda Madrid Investment, a subsidiary of Chinese conglomerate Wanda Group (specialising particularly in entertainment, hospitality, and real estate), acquired a 20% stake in Club Atletico de Madrid (LaLiga Santander) for an amount of €45m in March 2015. The main shareholder of Borussia Dortmund is the German company Evonik Industries, also the club's shirt sponsor until 2025, which holds 14.7% of the club's capital.

The Borussia Dortmund association, which owns 5.53% of the capital of the club, holds, however, all the BVB voting rights. Borussia Dortmund respect the "50+1" rule, which prevents private shareholders from accessing the majority of voting rights in German professional football clubs.

"We’ll do it the hard way. In order to grow ourselves over the next 10 years, we’ll do things like we have done in the last 10 years. Since 2006, we have increased our turnover by around 500 percent," said…