Further to comments made this week by Manchester United Sir Alex Ferguson that the club were close to signing the Chinese player Dong Fangzhuo from Dalian Shide, such a development could help the club to compensate for any fall in interest among Chinese after the loss of David Beckham in the summer and on past evidence may actually make the club the most popular club in China.
According to data from the Asian Football Study conducted in May by sports communications company SPORT+MARKT Manchester United came behind UEFA Champions League winners AC Milan in terms of interest among Chinese, with a score of 62%. United however was ahead of Real Madrid, but this was before Beckham’s defection to Real and the highly publicized tour of the region by Real and Beckham, whom the study revealed was the second most popular footballer in China after his team-mate Ronaldo.
It is inevitable that when the next Asian Football Study is conducted next year that some levels of interested in United will have transferred along with Beckham, but the experience of other top level teams with Chinese players demonstrates that Dong may actually have a greater impact on United’s popularity in China than Beckham ever did.
The fact that Barclaycard Premiership clubs Everton and Manchester City were able to score levels of interest over 30% in China can only be accounted for by the presence of Chinese internationals Li Tie at Everton and Sun Jihai at City. Furthermore, the acquisition of the Chinese basketball player Yao Ming has meant that NBA team the Houston Rockets achieved a 55% level of interest almost as popular as United. Ming himself was rated more popular than Ronaldo among Chinese with three-quarters of the 1,000 people surveyed ‘very interested’ in the 7ft 5in giant.
Of course, this popularity is down to Ming being a regular starter at the Rockets. The fact that Dong is coming from the most popular club in China, Dalian Shide, will help. But, the impact that Dong’s presence at United will have on its presence off the pitch in China will in the long-run be down to how much of a presence Dong can make on the pitch. It will certainly boost Vodafone’s brand in the fastest growing mobile phones market in the world. The study found that association of Vodafone, which has a 3% stake in China Mobile, with United had until now been almost negligible.
SPORT+MARKT is a leading institute specialising in the area of communications research and consultancy. We conduct over 300 studies annually in the field of sponsoring research, as well as assist companies, agencies, media, clubs and associations for the optimization of their individual strategies within the international sport sponsoring market.
SPORT+MARKT is responsible for innovative new research projects, such as a European Club Positioning Matrix (Sport5) and the first ever European Naming Rights Evaluation Tool (e.g. Allianz Arena/Bayern Munich and Juventus FC) to be implemented. Our reputation for excellence and reliability is enhanced by a customer portfolio including Siemens mobile, Vodafone, Allianz, MasterCard, Audi, Heineken, UEFA, BMW, TEAM, Sportfive.
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For further information please contact:
SPORT+MARKT AG Oliver Butler, UK Account Manager
COMMUNICATIONS RESEARCH Tel.: +44-(0)207 936 9362
107-111 Fleet St, London EC4A 2AB Fax: +44-(0)207 936 9103
www.sportundmarkt.com oliver.butler@sportundmarkt.com