China's Evergrande Taobao FC is set to become Asia's first listed soccer club, in a move that could bring the kind of transparency Beijing is seeking as part of its reforms of the sport.
The former Asian Champions League winners, who last month hired Brazil's World Cup-winning coach Luiz Felipe Scolari, have applied to list on China's so-called New Third Board for small enterprises, Evergrande said in a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Thursday.
Chinese President Xi Jinping is a soccer enthusiast who is pushing for the country to host the World Cup tournament one day.