The Chinese businessman who bought AC Milan went bankrupt, and the funder behind it turned out to be...

Charming professional football "stumbled" another Chinese businessman.

We have learned from many sources that Li Yonghong, a Chinese businessman who once acquired AC Milan, a century-old club in Serie A, was recently ordered to go bankrupt by the Hong Kong High Court. This is another Chinese businessman who went bankrupt after Zhang Jindong's family defeated Inter Milan.

There are five companies that initiated bankruptcy liquidation against Li Yonghong, all of which are indirect subsidiaries of China CITIC Financial Assets International Holdings Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as CITIC Financial International Holdings). They have all issued loans to physical companies controlled by Li Yonghong, and Li Yonghong personally provided guarantees. By the time the repayment date stipulated by the relevant agreement, the total amount of funds not yet repaid was approximately US$165.8 million, or approximately RMB 1.202 billion.

On October 18, 2024, the five companies served Li Yonghong with a statutory demand, requiring him to pay approximately US$289 million in payments due and due on August 30, 2024. Since then, in February 2025, five companies filed a bankruptcy petition for Li Yonghong. In April 2025, Li Yonghong submitted a petition to defend this and put forward defense opinions on the calculation of amount and interest.

But these defenses failed to change the court's decision to order bankruptcy. "Even if all the disputes of the amount are accepted in the most favorable way for the debtor, the debtor still owes the petitioner a total of US$165,844,930.71, and the amount has not been paid yet. This meeting agrees." After citing Li Yonghong's defense lawyer, the presiding judge of the Hong Kong court, Chen Jingfen, said.

Li Yonghong was not very famous in the Chinese business community at first. In 2017, he acquired the Italian AC Milan Club with many companies controlled by Rossoneri Advance Co., Limited (hereinafter referred to as Rossoneri) as a physical entity, and once served as the chairman of this century-old Serie A giant, and has since become famous in the Chinese business community.

Li Yonghong's acquisition of AC Milan was 740 million euros, buying 99.93% of the equity, of which 520 million euros were used to acquire shares, and the remaining 220 million euros were used to repay existing debts for AC Milan. In order to raise funds needed for the acquisition, Li Yonghong implemented a leveraged financing operation, raising financing and borrowing from multiple institutions, including the US hedge fund Elliott. This operation method also caused the transaction to be questioned by all walks of life from the beginning.

In 2017, the same year that Li Yonghong acquired AC Milan, the State Council forwarded the "Notice on Further Guiding Opinions on Further Guidance and Standardization of Overseas Investment" (hereinafter referred to as Document No. 74), and included real estate, hotels, cinemas, entertainment industries, and sports clubs in the scope of "restricted investment".

And that year, the relevant financial regulatory authorities also specifically surveyed the sources of funds for many companies that were keen on overseas investment and acquisitions, including Rosenelli. Chinese-funded overseas cultural and sports industries have suddenly cooled down.

This also affected the fate of Li Yonghong and AC Milan. In 2018, Li Yonghong lost control of AC Milan because he failed to repay Elliot's debt as scheduled. Li Yonghong has since been eliminated and has fallen into a debt vortex.

It is worth noting that the five companies that have recovered Li Yonghong's debts this time are indirect subsidiaries of CITIC Jinzi International Holdings, which was originally named China Huarong International Holdings Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Huarong International). Judicial documents show that the five companies petitioned that the amount of guarantees to the corporate entities controlled by Li Yonghong and provided by him personally was approximately US$289 million.

This reveals Li Yonghong's capital chain to a certain extent. Huarong-based company in the era of Lai Xiao democratic governance was one of Li Yonghong's main financial supporters.

In April 2018, three months before Li Yonghong was eliminated from AC Milan, Lai Xiaomin was investigated and was doubled out 6 months later. In 2021, he was sentenced to death for crimes such as bribery, embezzlement, and bigamy. Lai Xiaomin received bribes of up to 1.788 billion yuan.

After Lai Xiaomin was brought down, Bai Tianhui, who was once the general manager of Huarong International, was also investigated. In February this year, the Tianjin High Court rejected Bai Tianhui's appeal and upheld the death penalty. According to official disclosures, Bai Tianhui received bribes of up to 1.108 billion yuan.

Not only that, Jinbaobao Holdings, a Hong Kong listed company that was close to Huarong's company and its executives, also provided loans to Li Yonghong's company. In August 2017, Jinbao Holdings provided a loan of US$8.3 million to Rosenelli Sports Company with an annual interest rate of 14%. The mortgaged assets of this loan are Rossoneri Advance Co., Limited, owned by Li Yonghong.

Later, Jinbaobao Holdings was renamed TEAMWAY INTLGP.

For a considerable period of time, overseas professional football clubs were sought after investment targets for Chinese capital. Chinese consortiums such as Wanda Group, Suning Group, and Fosun Group have all been involved in or occupied Serie A and Premier League clubs such as Atletico Madrid, Inter Milan, and Wolves.

Due to the changes in the macro environment and the adjustment of regulatory policies in recent years, many of these capitals have been withdrawn: in 2018, Wanda Group sold equity in Atletico Madrid Club; in the same year, Li Yonghong was eliminated from AC Milan; in 2024, the Zhang Jindong family had to withdraw from Inter Milan Club because they failed to repay the loan due to Oak Capital as scheduled.

Chinese capital has gradually become weaker in the field of international professional football, and domestic professional football is also like a curse. Evergrande, Suning, R&F and other "financials" who are involved in China's domestic professional football have also been forced to withdraw from it because of their own difficulties in their own business. Suning even staged a "disbandment in the second year of winning the championship", and its fate turned very dramatic.

The charm of black and white football is still there, but the glory of the financial backers is no longer there. It can make people famous and quickly fall. Li Yonghong is not the first to be such a fate, and it is hard to say that he is the last one.