Dalian Shide F.C.
Xu Ming was well known as the owner and chairman of Dalian Shide F.C., formerly China's top football club which dominated the Chinese Jia-A League in the 2000s. He bought the team in 2000 from Wang Jianlin, the billionaire real-estate developer in Dalian. He reportedly tried to sell the club for 600 million yuan (US$98 million) in 2009, without success. The club shut down in 2012 after Xu was detained. He reportedly said that he was not interested in football, but invested in the team to please Dalian mayor Bo Xilai, who was a fan of the team.