ITPV » The second reason why

can be done by March or April next year，" he added.


The new academy， Thohir explained to Xinhua， will help talents from China become high-quality soccer players to be able to play in the Chinese national team and also in other parts of the world. "I really believe that China has the potential with its 1.3 billion population，" he stressed.


A news conference was held in Italy's business capital Milan on Tuesday to officially unveil the Chinese shareholder to the local press.


Suning Sports， a newly established company under Suning Group， on June 6 announced the deal for 270 million euros (nearly 300 million U.S. dollars) sealing the acquisition of 68.55 percent stake of Inter Milan.


Indonesian businessman Thohir， who had previously owned the majority stake in the club， was staying on as the president with a 31.05 percent stake.


Suning， Thohir told Xinhua， will further help the financial restructuring of Inter Milan after "the debt that we had previously has being going down in the last two years， while revenues have been going up."


Thohir explained to Chinese media on the sidelines of Tuesday's news conference that a key reason why he chose a Chinese shareholder was because he was looking for a partner "with an entrepreneurial background， but who also loves soccer."


He noted that Suning has already proved to be able to build a good quality soccer， when it bought Jiangsu Sainty last December and poured in more than 100 million euros (over 110 million U.S. dollars) during the winter transfer window to create a star-studded squad in the Chinese Super League (CSL).


"Suning chairman Zhang Jindong believes in the project， and this is a new era that we can take off with the new partnership，" Thohir pointed out.


The second reason why Thohir chose China was that "from 264 million fans， we have 194 million in Asia Pacific， and China is more than 100 million. It is a reality that we have to be there."


Inter Milan， Thohir went on saying， is the number one Serie A team in China in terms of fan number. Yet， "the philosophy of Inter