President Xi calls for more sports exchanges and cooperation between China and UK

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Soccer-mad Chinese President Xi Jinping called for more exchanges and cooperation between China and UK on sports, majorly on soccer, during his visit to City Football Academy on Friday, according to China’s leading news agency Xinhua.

Accompanied by British PM David Cameron, Mr Xi visited the City Football Academy of EPL giant Manchester City FC and presented at the former Manchester City player Sun Jihai ‘s inclusion into English National Football Museum’s fall of fame.

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Why Huawei is investing big money in soccer?

By Soccerex, edited by He Lanying

Huawei is a relative newcomer to the sports sponsorship market, but a host of soccer partnerships in the past couple of years have seen the Chinese telecoms company bulk out its portfolio in a bid to raise its global brand awareness in a congested market.

Since 2012, the company has signed agreements with Spain’s Professional Football League (LFP) and club side Atlético Madrid, the Russian national soccer team, German clubs Borussia Dortmund and FC Schalke 04, Premier League side Arsenal FC, French champions Paris Saint-Germain and Dutch Eredivisie giants Ajax, among others.

This year the company’s soccer sponsorship activities have not let up. Deals with Norwegian club Vålerenga Fotball AS and Portuguese Primeira Liga side SL Benfica were signed in February, followed shortly after by agreements with the Panamanian Football Association and Colombia’s 2014 Fifa World Cup sensation James Rodriguez.

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Milan’s Weibo followers increased by 2,500 within 24hrs after relaunch

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By Tom Elsden, editing by Yutang Sports

Recently, AC Milan relaunched their official Weibo account and grew by over 2,500 followers in less than 24 hours. Accumulatively, AC Milan now has over 2.3 million total followers on Chinese social media, making it the most followed Italian team online in China.

The club’s relaunch post reached over 2,700 in total engagement. This was AC Milan’s most engaged post ever and the second most shared post from a European football club in the last 30 days.

The relaunch of their Weibo falls ahead of their planned tour to China where the club will take part in the 2015 International Champions Cup. The club will face Inter Milan and Real Madrid at the end of July in Shenzhen and Shanghai, respectively. Having relaunched their account, AC Milan will look to connect with their passionate China fan base by covering the live matches, running fan activations, and providing behind-the-scenes content from the tour.

Juventus coincidentally also launched on the same day, reaching around 4,000 total followers, meaning that Italy’s two most followed teams in China are now both on the No.1 social platform.

Vanke refused to invest in soccer and basketball

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By Yutang Sports

Recently, Wang Shi, the president of Vanke, came to Wuhan for opening ceremony of The 21 Asian Rowing Junior Championships. During the interview from reporters, Wang announced that Vanke will continue to push the development of rowing. However, in terms of soccer and basketball, Wang claimed that they will never get involved in it, never, never, never.

In last September, Wang became the chairman of Asian Rowing Union. His coming into power was regarded as the reform of China’s sports system. Now, Wang is a visiting scholar of Cambridge University, and the Rowing Championships made him put off his research issues.

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China’s Evergrande plans first Asian soccer listing, eyes funds, reforms

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By SBS

The former Asian Champions League winners, who last month hired Brazil’s World Cup-winning coach Luiz Felipe Scolari, have applied to list on China’s so-called New Third Board for small enterprises, Evergrande said in a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Thursday.

Chinese President Xi Jinping is a soccer enthusiast who is pushing for the country to host the World Cup tournament one day. Yet the men’s national team languishes in 79th place in the world rankings of soccer’s governing body FIFA.

In March, the government announced a far-reaching plan to raise the level of play and reform a sport tainted by corruption. Listing a club would be one way of improving transparency, as entities are obliged to disclose financial details to investors.

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Sport8 launched app to promote soccer in China

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By CRIENGLISH.com

Sport8 International held a product launch event on Tuesday at the Chaoyang Museum of Urban Planning in Beijing. One of the highlights of the event was the O2O (online to offline) product, “Sport8”.

Sport8 International is co-sponsored by Huang Jianxiang, one of the best-known sports commentators in China, Wesley Sneijder, a Dutch professional footballer who currently plays for the Turkish club Galatasaray and Bai Qiang, an Entrepreneur from China.

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China to introduce soccer textbooks to schools in fall

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By Xinhua

New soccer textbooks will be introduced to Chinese primary and middle schools beginning in the autumn semester of this year, after the Ministry of Education named the sport a compulsory part of the national curriculum.

The textbooks have been compiled with input from soccer coaches and experts by state-managed publisher the People’s Education Press (PEP).

Aimed at primary school students from grades three to six as well as junior and senior middle school students, they cover soccer’s basic skills and rules as well as the sport’s culture, according to the PEP.

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