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和平
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ASIA
26 March 2014
Embassy Supports Sports Diplomacy Through Event With Erick Thohir and Handy Soetedjo, First Asian NBA Owners

Globalization of Italian football

Italy is witnessing a revival in the globalization of one its most cherished treasures, football, writes Emanuele Schibotto.

Italy is witnessing a revival in the globalization of one its most cherished treasures, football, writes Emanuele Schibotto.

Erick Thohir, a charismatic Indonesian businessman, recently purchased a 70% stake in the Italian football team Inter Milan, with the intention of making it more global, and the Chinese businessman Wang Jianlin is evaluating the possible purchase of the Italian Roma F.C.

“We've already laid good foundations for the next two to three years," Inter Milan new president said. "But Inter have got to be prepared for 2016 when the Champions League final will be held in Milan”.

Soccer is loved and played all over the world, from the backstreets of the favelas of Brazil to the lush green stadiums of Germany. It unites countries during the World Cup and brings strangers together in conversation. Players are traded from team to team and country to country, and managers are transnational. There are Arsenal fans in California, and Barcelona fans in Australia. Soccer is truly global.

As Forbes' Agustino Fontevecchia writes, “it has become increasingly clear that the old power structures of the world are crumbling, in many cases being overthrown. And soccer, the world’s most popular sport, is providing clear evidence of the relentlessness of globalization”.

English Premier League teams, especially, have a global fan base. Players are treated like rock stars when they land in cities like Hanoi, Bangkok, and Kuala Lumpur, as viewing rights are strategically sold to Asian television networks long before their arrival.

There is still however a largely untapped fan base to be had in Asia and across the world, and smart movers are getting in on the game.

“Thohir, who also has a hand in the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers and MLS team D.C. United" – writes Fontevecchia - "will become the latest owner of a major European soccer club from a so-called emerging market, as Inter joins teams like Chelsea, Manchester City, Paris Saint Germain, and AS Monaco, among others".

There is huge unlocked potential for Italian football, which was very popular abroad throughout the Eighties, but then was overtaken in importance by the English and Spanish leagues.

This new wave of globalization will create a larger and more international following across the world for Italian teams. This could eventually provoke a positive effect in how Italy is perceived globally, and may even lead to increased foreign investment more generally.

This is good news for the country, as it currently lags behind its European competitors in foreign investment attractiveness. According to the OECD, foreign direct investment in Italy totalled just $16 billion in 2012, compared with $25 billion in France and $62 billion in the UK. But as Reuters notes, “investors have started tiptoeing back into the euro-zone's third-largest economy after a dry spell” -- companies from General Electric to Russia's Rosneft.

All things considered, "calcio", as Italians call football, might provide the perfect pathway for Italy's deeper integration into globalization's architecture.

Acknowledgements

Emanuele Schibotto, the author, is Director for Development of the Asian Century Institute. He is also a PhD candidate in Geopolitics at the Guglielmo Marconi University in Rome and Director of Equilibri.net, an Italian think tank on Geopolitics and International Relations.
Tags: asia, Italy, football, calcio, Erick Thohir, Wang Jianlin, Equilibri.net

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