SoftBank in $25-Billion Plan to Reshape World Soccer, FT Reports
SoftBank in $25-Billion Plan to Reshape World Soccer, FT Reports
(Bloomberg) -- SoftBank Group Corp. is part of an international grouping behind a plan to create global soccer tournaments for the sport’s international governing body, Fifa, the Financial Times reported.
The grouping includes investors from the U.A.E., U.S., China and Saudi Arabia, the newspaper said on its website, citing unidentified people familiar with the offer. The identity of the investors could not be learned, the FT said.
The consortium’s proposal envisages the expansion of the “Club World Cup”; it also plans a new international league competition for national teams, the newspaper said, citing people with knowledge of the plans. Fifa would have a 51 percent holding in a joint venture with the grouping, with the investors guaranteeing revenue of at least $25 billion, according to the FT.
Fifa, SoftBank and Centricus, a U.K.-based group that may be assembling the investor grouping, declined to comment, the newspaper said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Colin Keatinge in Tokyo at ckeatinge@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Kazunori Takada at ktakada17@bloomberg.net.
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