Première Ligue Convention: "Our role is to develop the Olympique Lyonnais brand in China" (X. Hu)

"Now, our role is to develop the Olympique Lyonnais (Ligue 1 Conforama) brand in China, not to manage the club. After 6 months from the launch of this joint-venture, we have discovered some positive things and negative things," said Xing Hu, CEO of Beijing OL FC Ltd, at the first day of the Première Ligue Convention of French professional football in Cannes (FRA) on 27/06/2016.

"We (IDG) have previously invested in Super Sports Media in China, and other sports marketing properties. As far as acquiring clubs in Europe, we established - and rigorously applied - five criteria that had to be met (see below): 1 - Stable economic model, 2 - Transfers, 3 - Minority stage, 4 - Assets, 5 - Opportunity," added Xing Hu.

The joint venture Beijing OL FC Ltd is 55% held by the Chinese group IDG and 45% by the Groupe OL (holding company of Olympique Lyonnais). IDG European Sports Investment, a subsidiary of the Chinese investment group IDG Capital Partners, acquired 20% of Groupe OL for €100m pour on 13/12/2016.

"At OL, we had a ten-year plan (for considering investors), and we targeted China and…