Stephen Perry hails Wang Jianlin as "pioneer" in China's football strategy

Stephen Perry, chairman of the 48 Group Club in UK, on Wednesday hailed Chinese billionaire Wang Jianlin a "pioneer" after he bought a 20% stake in Spanish champions Atletico Madrid for 45m euros($52m).

"I would think he is a pioneer against a broader strategy that will emerge over 5 years or so," Perry, who himself failed in an attempt to buy an 8% stake in English Premier League side Arsenal five years ago.

"He would be aware of the long term interest of China to build its capability in football," he told Xinhua.

Perry, whose independent business network committed to promoting positive links with China, is a pioneer in Chinese football history.

He brought West Bromwich Albion football club to Beijing to take on the "China Eleven" on Aug. 1, 1979, making it the first English team visiting China. He later found out late leader Deng Xiaoping was sitting in the stadium that day.

He said that Wang's long-term goal might become the boss of Atletico Madrid.

"The investment by Mr. Wang is a minority stake. So he will not control or run the club. he might have an understanding with them to increase his stake under certain circumstances but nothing has been said about that.

"Typically minority shareholders are fans who want to be involved or strategic investors planning a long term acquisition. This will become clearer in time - maybe a year or two or maybe 3-5 years. Whatever happens it is sensible to make a smaller investment first to learn."

Wang heads one of China's biggest property companies Dalian Wanda, which has been buying up big foreign brands amid a weak domestic real estate market. This includes US cinema chain AMC and luxury British yachtmaker Sunseeker.

Wang's Wanda Group will be the first Chinese company to invest in a top European football club.

Perry said, "There may be other factors such as business in Madrid real estate, other Spanish strategies, and possibly an interest in gaining help from Athletico to a Chinese club. Mr. Wang is a sophisticated businessman and will have a core strategy that will emerge in time."

Perry, who has been to China over 200 times, also warned Wang of possible risks in investing Euoprean football clubs because one can hardly find a successful investor in English football.

"It is difficult to buy into English top clubs unless you are American with a good financial debt model and a good strategy for releasing new revenue streams, especially TV rights. The other source of good investment has been middle eastern buyers with very big wealth and using good advisers."

The 60-year-old Wang is known to be a big football fan and owned one of China's most successful teams from 1994 to 2000. Endi