By Paul Nicholson
December 7 – Wherever there is money in football these days you will generally find Europe’s clubs prospecting. The current gold rush is in China with AC Milan, Bayern Munich and Arsenal very much in the middle of the race for Chinese football’s hearts and mind.
Charles Allen head of marketing at Arsenal, said on a visit to China: “Every month, I hope, we’ll be opening a new soccer school in a new city and playing in an Arsenal Way in lots of cities. We’d rather start small, focus and get grow and build out. And that’ll be the real establishment of the relationship.”
Arsenal already have Chinese sponsor partners with Huawei and a lottery partner.
The North London club aren’t alone in opening football schools. Italy’s AC Milan has franchised four youth football training schools in Luoyang, Henan Province, in partnership with the local education authority and is further expanding with AC Milan Junior Camp China, in Yuhong District, Shenyang.
This will establish the first youth football training base in Northeast China for the club. Back in May, AC Milan announced a collaboration with China campus football that will send 350 coaches to 200 school in 20 Chinese cities over the next three years. As well as teaching 11,200 students in Chinese schools, the coaches will train 1,600 local teachers.
Not to be outdone German giants Bayern Munich are plotting their entry into China, Erich Schmidt, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Gigaset, said that the German mobile phone brand are preparing a joint effort with the club to launch youth training camps across China.
As part of the platinum partnership with Gigaset, Bayern Munich held a media gathering yesterday with Thiago Alcantara, Thomas Müller, and Xabi Alonso to promote the newly launched Gigaset Me smartphone.
When asked by Chinese media about Gigaset’s future strategic plan in sports marketing as a partner of Bayern, Schmidt said ” in partnership with Bayern Munich, we intend to set up youth training camps in China for 12-16 year old talents.
“FC Bayern will also open an office in Shanghai as the club’s headquarters in Asia, which demonstrates how we both place a lot of emphasis on the Chinese market.”
Gigaset, one of the leading providers of technology and consumer electronics, entered a platinum partnership with FC Bayern for smartphones, tablets and wearables in June.
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