Inter owners Suning remain fully committed to the club, and they have a strategy to continue running the club in the medium-term future.
This according to today’s print edition of Milan-based newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport, who give an overview of the Chinese company’s plans for the club and emphasized their continued commitment to ownership of it despite links to the PIF.
Suning’s ownership of Inter has run into some financial difficulties, leading to speculation that they could have to sell the club with Saudi fund PIF among the mos persistently-rumoured buyers.
However, the signals from the Chinese remain clear, that they are continuing on with their ownership and pursuing strategic aims to stabilize the club, while there are also indications that the PIF have cooled their interest.
One continued priority, the Gazzetta notes, is the development of the Inter brand among Chinese fans, as well as a commitment to developing youth football in China in line with the dictates put out by the Chinee government.
Suning continue to see the Nerazzurri as having significant potential within the Chinese football market.
Another clear component of Suning’s plans for Inter is the selling of players for profit followed by their intelligent replacement in the market.
Yesterday in an interview Nerazzurri CEO Beppe Marotta emphasized the importance of this aspect of running the club, the Gazzetta notes.
The newspaper goes on to report that this means that there are no “non-transferrable” players and the club, but that the owners are absolutely committed along with their directors to ensuring that departures can be adequately replaced such as in the case of Edin Dzeko’s arrival in the summer to take the place of Romelu Lukaku.
Suning remain committed to extending the contracts of Marotta and other key directors, to the end of ensuring continuity in this aspect of the sporting project.
The owners are also committed to the refinancing the the debt currently at the Nerazzurri, with an official announcement expected before the end of December.
The club are expected to refinance the two current bonds, worth a total of €375 million, into a single bond worth €400 million that will have a new maturity of 2027.
Lastly, the proposed new stadium to be built alongside AC Milan remains a major priority for the owners to increase revenues.
Rather than the rumours of a sale of the club for a high price to a buyer like the PIF, the Gazzetta suggests, Suning see the increase in revenue and modernized infrastructure represented by a new stadium as key.
The Nerazzurri as well as the Rossoneri remain fully committed to pressing on with the new stadium project, and Suning see this as a necessary component of their continued control of the club.
In the next short while, a number of important announcements can be expected from the owners at Inter, including developments on the new stadium, the renewals of key directors once President Steven Zhang is able to visit in person from China, and the refinancing of the bonds.
In the meantime, however, the contract extension of key midfielder Marcelo Brozovic is another key development on a sporting level to the club, and this could well be the first major announcement to come.
