Standard Chartered Trophy 2022 “I have no a religion, We don’t have an our god. Liverpool Football Club can be my religion – it’s a way of life for me. ”
Vijay was born in Singapore – nearly 11, 000km (6, 800 miles) away from Liverpool’s Anfield stadium — and he’s already been waiting since last year for his team to visit his house city.
He’s not the only one. Earlier this particular month more than fifty, 000 fans packed Singapore’s National Stadium for a friendly go with between Liverpool and Crystal Palace.
Right after three years of Covid travel bans, British Premier League groups are once again criss-crossing the globe on pre-season summer tours.
The financial importance of these trips is hard to overstate. When Manchester United authorized a commercial income loss of nearly $56m (£46. 8m) within 2021, the golf club said it was “primarily due” to Covid disruptions, which included the cancellation of the first team’s pre-season visit in India.
Today with restrictions eased, many clubs are usually flocking back to their number one overseas market.
“Asia is our own single largest area in terms of fan base, ” Billy Hogan, Liverpool’s chief executive told the BBC.
“Someone once said to me personally you could stand at any airport and jump on any plane and have a reason to go generally there and find Liverpool fans. But a third of our global support is here now and we feel there is certainly tremendous opportunity in Asia. ”
Global appeal
This summer Premier League rivals Stansted United chose to visit Thailand and Quotes, where they also performed Liverpool and Amazingly Palace.
Meanwhile, Tottenham Hotspur visited South Korea, that is the home country of the superstar striker Kid Heung-min.
From a wearing point of view, these travels make little feeling. Long flights across several time areas and specific zones, high temperatures and humid weather aren’t ideal preparation for a new season back home in the uk.
“It’s not the best thing to do, ” says Liverpool’s manager Jurgen Klopp, in response to a question from the BBC in a press conference.
“First and foremost I’m a trainer and if we could perform two weeks in Austria and train twice a day there, that might be better. ”
“But we know how big our fanbase is in Asia and to be close to them is a wonderful issue. ”
In reality, the debate in top notch football was resolved a long time ago. The industrial argument has won conclusively and professionals this summer will feel vindicated by the high amounts of demand they have seen in the region.
New numbers reported this year display that, for the first time actually, the Premier League will receive more revenue from global broadcasters than it can from domestic channels in its UK real estate market. Asia alone can be expected to account for $1. 4bn between next season and 2025.
Tottenham Hotspur FC
In South Korea, Spurs’ exhibition fit against a local all-star side sold out within 25 minutes. It also became the most live-streaming sporting event in the country’s history.
In the meantime, promoters in Bangkok felt comfortable environment the starting ticket expense for a friendly in between Manchester United and Liverpool at $136. In Singapore, the cheapest tickets cost $107.
These prices are significantly higher than enthusiasts would expect to pay in England for a competitive fixture, but ultimately they represent the powerful pull from the Premier League’s best clubs.
A Gatwick spokesman told the particular BBC: “We did not set these solution prices, we get a set fee, , nor receive any discuss of ticket revenues. ”
Asia revenue
How much teams receive for these far-flung friendlies tends to be closely guarded within the industry, but analysts say the particular fees are not likely to justify the particular trips alone, particularly when travel and personnel expenses are considered.
“Teams don’t actually make a huge amount of money directly from the pre-season video games, maybe a few mil dollars per suit at the very top end, inch said Kevin McCullagh, the Asia-Pacific publisher for trade publication SportBusiness.
“But there’s a bigger game afoot. This is about brand name building and enthusiast engagement in a marketplace that will deliver much bigger long-term income from broadcast legal rights deals and support deals with Asian brands and companies. Absolutely where the real money lies out here. inch
While they were in Singapore, Liverpool agreed upon a new shirt support deal, reportedly really worth more than $240m, along with Standard Chartered, an Asia-focused bank.
Apart from helping raise a sponsor’s profile around the global stage, football clubs can also provide associated with ready-made treasure troves of consumer information.
Manchester Usa, for example , estimates that their customer partnership management (CRM) database contains 50m information. On social media a year ago they had 176m cable connections.
So in return for its sponsorship money, a brandname and its marketing division will often get important insights into the consumer behaviour of millions of fans who have authorized or engaged with all the club at some point in past times.
“The first thing big brands will ask is to see may be the data on the fans, ” Mr McCullagh said.
“Before they invest, they want to understand how many fans a club has, the demographics, the ages, the number of men, how many women, their income user profile, things like that, inch he added.
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However , it really is television money that has propelled English football to the top financially.
For many years other sports leagues – including European football leagues – have appeared enviously at the Premier League, who were the first in line to come to Asia plus establish commercial ties in the 1990s.
The particular Premier League’s competitiveness, distinctive fan lifestyle and association with all the English language have all contributed to it becoming the most-watched sports activities league in the world, attracting a combined viewership of 3. 2bn globally.
Half of a global fanbase and an one fourth of television audience, the Premier League says, is in Asia-Pacific – that is regardless of games often completing in the middle of the night.
However experts say it will probably be a challenge to retain all of these fans, especially with a much wider selection of pastimes and life style consumption choices open to younger generations.
Last year Florentino Perez, the particular president of Spanish giants Real This town, said “Young people are no longer interested in football. They have other systems on which to distract themselves. ”
This time of view, together with predictions that tv revenues will eventually taper off, convinced some executives in top European soccer clubs that a new competition would have to become invented to keep enthusiasts engaged.
Last year’s ill-fated European Super League – a ‘closed shop’ structure that would have integrated five English Leading League clubs — was seen by many people as appealing to the millions of fans all over the world, especially in Asia, would you prefer to watch elite clubs rather than the middling teams.
But it had been eventually scrapped after a furious backlash through fans, both in the UK and globally.
“European football clubs should not make assumptions regarding Asia, indeed they must fight for every buck they make, ” says Simon Chadwick, global professor of sports activity at Emlyon Company School in Italy.
“Asian consumers are clever, sophisticated, and perceptive. You could even believe in recent years there has been a few disengagement from European football amongst Oriental fans, so clubs are advised nor to be arrogant or even naive in let’s assume that Asia is the goose that laid the golden egg. inch
Mr Chadwick also said the prospect of competitive Premier League matches being performed abroad – some thing first proposed within 2008 – is unlikely in the short-to-medium-term, although the debate should come around again ultimately.
Back in Singapore, Vijay removes his tee shirt and shows off their back. It is protected in Liverpool tattoo designs and the years of each and every trophy won within the club’s history. He or she is optimistic about the long term.
“My father was obviously a Liverpool fan and the first thing I did along with my baby daughters was to put the Liverpool shirt with them. This will carry on through the generations, believe me”.
