When Manchester United's opening English Premier League fixture was
brought forward, Italian champions Juventus had to switch their
pre-season friendly in Singapore to avoid a clash. In Southeast Asia,
only one league matters.
Juventus want to change that, though, and claw back some ground in a
region where they used to compete for audiences with English sides when
Serie A was at its best.
"We all know where Serie A was in Southeast Asia back in 1995 to 2002,
we know that it was a stronger league. Everywhere you were going you saw
Serie A but we lost massively compared to English Premier
League,"
Nicola Verdun, Juventus' head of global partnerships, told Reuters on
Friday.
"All the clubs in the Premier League have been gaining. Even a smaller
(English) club which has less interest, they have been seeing fans
wearing their jerseys in this region because you can see their matches."
Verdun said the Premier League's flexibility to move fixtures earlier to
cater to Asian audiences had paid off while Italian organisers still
ensure the best matches are played in the European evenings when most of
Asia is asleep.
United's opener against Swansea City on Saturday kicks-off at 1145 GMT
or 1945 Singapore time, meaning bumper sales at bars, restaurants and
coffee shops in the citystate at prime time.
It also was part of the reason Juventus' fixture against a Singapore
selection, the first football fixture at the country's new 55 000-seat
national stadium, was moved forward two hours to 1800 local time.
"You can't compare an official Premier League game, even an official
Serie A game, with a friendly game,"
Verdun said, when asked about
Saturday's kickoff time being moved to avoid a clash.
"If we are coming in 10 years and we are going to play at the same time
as a Premier League match and we are going to play a top European club
then I would say maybe we can fight, in terms of audience."
Maybe and not definitely as the English league has swept through Asia and captivated fans and sponsors alike.
Chelsea and Manchester United boast offices in the region, Hong Kong
hosts a biennial English Premier League trophy, Manchester City bought
an Australian club and even newly promoted Burnley toured Singapore in
recent years.
TOUGH TASK
Juventus, Italy's most successful club with 30 league titles, have a
tough ask ahead of them but they do have plans to muscle in on the
market.
"We might look into a joint venture with other local clubs within the
league, like maybe a Japanese club in terms of exchanging information
about sports perspective and marketing and maybe playing a game
together," Verdun said.
"In terms of what Manchester City have been doing I think it's quite
unique, they made a calculation of what was the outcome of buying an
Australian football club. We never thought about that."
It is one of the many ideas the club has to increase growth in the
region, including internal discussions about playing Serie A matches in
the continent, but Verdun questioned the helpfulness of the Italian
league organisers.
"The league is definitely not doing enough because if they were doing
enough and we are where we are today we have a major problem. So we need
to have a league that is for the interest of all the clubs.
"But we are not a market that is used to making big changes straight
away," he added, pointing to the initial reluctance of fans and players
when some league matches kicked off earlier to cater to foreign
audiences.
"At the end we all want to make more money, to pay them, to buy top
players and to do that you need to activate your programmes in the
market and engage with fans."
The Singapore leg of their pre-season tour comes after visits and
matches in Australia and Indonesia where they avoided the lure of the
opening weekend of English football.
A further stop would have come in China for the Suppercoppa Italiana
against Coppa Italia winners AS Roma but the capital club could not
travel because they had Champions League qualifying matches either side
of the traditional August season-opening fixture.
The scheduling demands of the many competitions make organising crucial
tours a tricky task, particularly on the back of a World Cup when
players are tired.
"Absolutely from a commercial market perspective, it's always a balance
to find a solution that works for all and you need to get used to it,"
Verdun said.
"That is key (Serie A working together). Compared to La Liga, Barcelona
and Real Madrid go and sell tv rights in any market they want and it's
up to them what they want to do.
"For us we are not allowed to because it is the right of the league so
we have to work with the league and the other clubs to become stronger."
No comments:
Post a Comment