English Premiership champions Chelsea on Tuesday announced that
they will launch a new Chinese language website next year as they
look to expand their marketing in Asia.
The London-based club have signed a deal with China's biggest
internet service, SINA.com, which has more than 40 million hits a
day, to set up the Mandarin language site through their redesigned
website www.chelseafc.com.
Chelsea's popularity has grown in China since they won their
first title in 50 years in 2005, and they successfully defended it
last season.
Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon said: "China is a key
market for us but our philosophy is to help Chinese football, as
well as our own business, and our partnership with SINA will
reflect that."
Business affairs director Paul Smith added: "This partnership
marks the next stage of Chelsea's development in China. Clearly we
are becoming more popular and this is the right time to take that
to the next level."
The club is ranked fourth of all foreign clubs in terms of
popularity in China narrowly behind Manchester United and ahead of
Spanish giants Barcelona and Real Madrid.
Chelsea already have partnerships in China and last April began
cooperating with the Chinese Football Association and the Asian
Football Confederation to develop football at local level.
(China Daily November 30, 2006)