May 18 – The Argentine Football Association (AFA) has scored a hat-trick of sponsorship deal with Chinese companies. The news is timely boost for AFA, whose dysfunctions where highlighted again by the ‘flirting manual’.
On Thursday, AFA signed agreements with Chinese interior design company Der, home appliances manufacturer Vanward and consumer lending company Hexin.
The lengths of the agreements were, however, not disclosed, nor the values. The partnerships will be a welcome stream of new revenue for the AFA and strengthen AFA’s brand in Asia.
“This is the first time that AFA has developed regional sponsorship agreements,” said AFA president Tapia. “It is a sponsorship category that AFA did not have and allows us to enter new markets, in this case the Asian one, where we know that the Argentine team is a very attractive product for brands. Today brands trust our project and seek to work together with our association, which is very important for us and reinforces our commitment to keep Argentine football growing worldwide.”
The AFA made global headlines with a manual the governing body had handed out to Argentine journalists going to the World Cup with a chapter titled ‘how to stand a chance with a Russian girl.’ The guide recommended that journalists “look clean, smell nice and dress well” in order to impress Russian girls. The recommendations went viral and the AFA were villified around the world. They quickly retracted the guide, but the damage had been done.
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