Inter’s owners Suning will have to pay the Premier League a £157m payout following a court case related to TV rights.
Suning own PPTV, who agreed a three-year deal to stream all 380 Premier League games in China from 2019 to 2022 back in 2016. They paid 12 times more than previous rights holders Super Sports Media.
PPTV failed to pay the first instalment of £257m and in March 2020 they failed to pay their second instalment of £160m, citing financial issues. The deal was terminated six months later and the matter went to court.
Suning have faced significant financial issues throughout the COVID pandemic and in March 2021 they dissolved their Chinese Super League team Jiangsu FC. Last summer they also sold Inter stars Romelu Lukaku and Achraf Hakimi in order to balance the books.
The Chinese conglomerate have been in talks about selling the club in recent months, but no significant progress has been made yet. The company did announce recently that “the debt problem at our group has gradually stabilised”, suggesting that they could be in a position to pay the payout to the Premier League.