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(Sports Focus) Evergrande takes back control of Chinese top soccer club

Xinhua, June 25, 2015 Adjust font size:

Real estate giants Evergrande has taken back the control over China's top soccer club after buying 10 percent stake from partner and e-commerce titan Alibaba Group.

The Evergrande Taobao club announced on Wednesday that Evergrande Group now owns 60 percent stake after it offered to inject 400 million yuan (about 64.44 million U.S. dollars) plus the ownership of a soccer school into the club.

Exactly one year ago, Alibaba paid 1.2 billion yuan (about 192 million U.S. dollars) to acquire 50 percent stake in the Asian champions.

Evergrande Taobo said the stakes change did not mean the honeymoon of the two parties was over.

"A 50%-50% stakes did not fit in modern enterprise system," the Guangzhou-based club said in a statement. "The two sides had a friendly negotiation and agreed that Evergrande would become the controlling party. The form of cooperation remains the same."

Evergrande owner Xu Jiayin said it was the group's "strategic decision" to introduce new capital to the club.

Evergrande has won the Chinese Super League title three times since its promotion to the top flight in 2011. It also claimed the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Champions League crown in 2013, becoming China's first Asian champion since the country launched the professional league in 1994. Endi