It will bid for places in the A-League, W-League and national youth league, though Football Federation Australia (FFA) has said it has no imminent expansion plans.

Jiayuan has said it will not only fund the football stadium, but also pay for $15 million in training, administrative facilities and local infrastructure for the new club.

The league is expected to deliver $7.4 million to $9.2 million from additional media rights, $850,000 in additional sponsorship and an additional 1.9 million television viewers for the FFA, new research by sports marketing consultancy Gemba shows.

The proposed club, known for now as Southern Expansion, expects home game match attendances of 185,000 a season, Gemba says.

"The almost unanimous view of football fans around the country is that the game needs to continue to grow and be ambitious, beyond the current 10-team competition as soon as practicable," Southern head of football Craig Foster said.

"Since 2012/13, as highlighted by the analysis, there has been flat regular season attendances, along with low growth in subscription TV viewership. Expansion is critical to lifting exposure, investment, support and to grow the football economy, too often crying out for additional income today."

Jiayuan sees the league as an opportunity to accelerate its global expansion plans, which include local community projects with a special interest in team sports, such as football.

It saw its presence in Australia with Boyuan as an opportunity to fund a new Australian team, which it hopes would eventually win the Asian Champions League.


Already, the A-League club Melbourne City is owned by Chinese-backed City Football Group.

In Europe, Chinese investors have put money in Manchester City, Atletico Madrid and Lyon.

China's rich list, The Hurun Report, said Chinese interest in football, particularly in European, is "huge".

While Beijing has increased scrutiny of Chinese global investments in recent times, $860 million Jiayuan believes the Chinese government is still in favour of sporting club investments.