The Premier League is the most popular football league in China, with 300 million followers and growing. Football is highlighted as a key aspect of an English lifestyle to Chinese fans, who greatly respect the culture surrounding it. Premiership games are accessible to fans, being broadcasted through popular sporting channels Tencent and PPTV in China. So how do teams bring this ever-increasing audience away from the screens and into the UK?
The pride behind Premiership football
In China, the most followed European teams are all from the Premier League. Some popular clubs include Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester City, Tottenham, Brighton and Chelsea. Manchester United, Manchester City and Arsenal have all had footballers of Chinese nationality play for them in the past- in fact, the first Chinese footballer to score in the Premier league was Sun Jihai who played for Manchester City. Liverpool, Tottenham, Brentford, Arsenal, Wolves and Brighton also currently host Asian players in their teams. This is important for garnering the support of Chinese fans as having past players from their country that have made achievements for Premiership teams, as well as current ones from surrounding areas in Asia, encourages them to feel more connected to the cultural aspect of the game. Pride keeps Premiership football alive, with these teams in England being supported vicariously by local communities, so having cultural connectivity means feelings towards UK football in China go deeper than merely an outsider’s interest.
How clubs are targeting tourists
Research from VisitBritain demonstrates how football can be harnessed as a means of tourism for China, with 92% of Chinese fans expressing intentions to visit the UK in the next two years. Furthermore, these studies showed that Chinese football fans relied heavily on travel agent websites to inform them about international travel, which suggests ample opportunities in the market for these companies to step in. We spoke to Danny Powell at Chelsea FC, who told us that a ‘high volume of Chinese guests take the stadium tour each year and as such we have included Mandarin as a language option on our Tour+ offering. Tour+ provides additional content on the guest’s mobile phone, allowing for translated descriptions of each area of the stadium you visit on tour.’
“We have several thousand Chinese visitors take part in the stadium tour each year and this number is growing.”
We also interviewed Andy Begg from Manchester City FC, which is undergoing an exciting new expansion project on its home stadium this year to facilitate more visitors. Begg reports ‘We have several thousand Chinese visitors take part in the stadium tour each year and this number is growing’ – similarly to Chelsea, the club provides Mandarin options in the form of spoken tour guides and a new media guide experience which will be available in the language. The club also has an office in Shanghai, and the City Football Group relating to Manchester City has opened a football club in China called Shenzhen Peng City. Chinese president Xi Jinping even made a visit to Manchester City Football Academy in 2015, which started rumours of his support for the team and acted as a huge promotion for the club in the Chinese market.
Expanding horizons
The £300,000,000 expansion project for Manchester City, which is due to finish in January 2026, sees the addition of 8,000 seats to the local stadium, a new fan zone, a variety of food and drink outlets, a club shop, museum, workspace and a 400-person hotel. This is incredibly promising for the Chinese Outbound market as it makes almost every aspect of coming to England for a football game more accessible for tourists. The club additionally share plans to become more active on the social networks across China, attend sales missions, continue to build relationships with Chinese tour operators and look to create more packages/experiences tailored to the Chinese audience.
Marketing your Premiership club to China
When asked about marketing to Chinese international students and tourists, a group that makes up a large proportion of Premiership football fans in China, Begg explained the process to us: ‘We attend Visit Britain/ETOA and Guanxi roadshows in China where we get the opportunity to meet Chinese tour operators to promote Manchester City FC as a destination. We then look to the operators to promote our product for us.’ The team has specialists in the Chinese market on board who work hard to maintain close working relationships with these tour operators, as well as promoting the brand through Chinese social media channels such as Rednote; putting Manchester city ahead of the game with the Chinese football audience. In fact, Begg recalls ‘When I was in Beijing with Guanxi last November, I stumbled across a bar showing a City game and the bar was full of Chinese Man City fans wearing the club colours – it was great to see.’
Premiership football clubs recognise the value of Chinese tourism, as visitors will often spend significantly when their needs are met at stadiums across the UK. While some Chinese Premiership fans are loyal to certain teams, many have a more general interest in Premiership football and therefore no specific stadium preferences. This greatly opens opportunities for football clubs to promote their brands to Chinese fans, drawing higher numbers into their stadiums. Factors that are important to tour operators in bringing Chinese tourists to UK stadiums include a simple booking process, Mandarin language/ translation options and a good price that ensures a product profit for operators. As the country with the most Premiership fans in the world, China should be a crucial part of every club’s marketing considerations.
Guanxi has experience in working with Premiership football clubs- if you’d like help promoting your brand to the Chinese market, please get in touch!