Deinze might not ring a bell – but a private equity group from Singapore has bought the small second-tier Belgian club to launch global ambitions

Hiroyuki Ono and Singapore-based ACA Football Partners want to build a multi club ownership network with data analytics and capture the Asian market with an OTT platform.

In January, they acquired Belgian second-division outfit KMSK Deinze as their founding club. “It’s the Berlusconi model,” he says.

Why it matters: ACA Football Partners are the seventh foreign investors in the Belgian second division, an attractive but cutthroat market.

The perspective: Ono and ACA Football Partners are not the first investors with the plan of exploiting the huge market in football-mad Asia. Few succeed.