By Paul Nicholson
December 11 – Chinese brewer Tsingtao has become the first Chinese brand to sign a deal with the Asian Football Confederation. In a three-year tie-up, starting 2014, the Tsingtao brewery will sponsor the AFC’s club competitions.
Chinese club football has had a resurgence in recent months with the performance of Guangzhou Evergrande capturing the attention of the nation and its political elite with its AFC Champions League win earlier this month. The team now plays in their first FIFA World Club Cup which beings this week in Morocco.
Tsingtao is the second largest brewer in China but the first Chinese business to engage in a commercial partnership with the AFC. The deal covers the AFC Champions League as well as the AFC Cup, the AFC President’s Cup and the AFC Futsal Club Championship.
Negotiated by World Sport Group, who hold exclusive commercial rights to all AFC properties, no figure has been put on the value of the contract, though industry estmates reckon it is between $8-10 million over the three-year period.
If Chinese club teams continue to perform well in AFC competition, then the media value alone will easily top that figure, just in China.
The AFC Champions League final was the most-watched sporting event on Chinese television over the last 12 months with an average audience of 23.68 million on China’s CCTV-5 channel for the second leg in Guangzhou against FC Seoul.
There was a total attendance figure of more than 110,000 across both legs of the final.
Tsingtao is sold in 62 countries worldwide. Wang Ruiyong, Vice President and Marketing President of Tsingtao Brewery (pictured left), said: “Today marks another milestone of our sports marketing strategy as the first Chinese brand to be a partner of AFC.
“I believe Tsingtao beer’s global brand influence can, through intensive promotional activities, promote the AFC Champions League internationally. We chose to sponsor AFC because they have the best football matches. We also recognise Guangzhou’s success in the AFC Champions League and celebrate this.”
The AFC is keen to make sure the Tsingtao partnership is long term and opens up China for more commercial opportunity. China has underperformed in international football in comparison to other sports – it has only qualified for the World Cup final tournament once and recently has struggled to qualify for AFC regional finals – but there is a strong and growing appetite for the game as well as a growing national expectancy of success and qualification for major tournaments.
Guangzhou Evergrande’s club success has increased that appetite and expectancy.
Dato’ Alex Soosay, General Secretary of AFC (pictured right), said: “The professionalism and exposure of our club competitions have been improving year-on-year and there is a lot to be gained by being associated with the club game in Asia. We are sure the relationship between the AFC and Tsingtao will be mutually beneficial and we look forward to a long and fruitful relationship.”
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