Sandro Rosell believes that the agreement signed this Saturday between the Club and the Peking Municipal company Intersports is: “the first step towards developing a Barça feeling in Asia”.
The strategic agreement between the Club and the Chinese company Intersports to promote the Barça brand and the Club’s values in the Chinese market was signed this Saturday. During the signing, which was attended by Club President Sandro Rosell and the Intersports President Heifeng Xia, as well as the Club’s marketing director Laurent Colette and Jun Chen, the general manager of Intersports, the strategic priority of the Chinese market for the Club was stressed.
Trip to China in November
According to Sandro Rosell, the deal aims to: “create a permanent link with the Chinese society, so that all who wish to can share with us the values of FC Barcelona”. The President also announced that a delegation from the Club would be visiting China at the end of November: “we will take it a step at a time, so that the new generations of Chinese citizens understand what the Barça feeling is. We hope that the Chinese boy and girls’ feeling for football will be based on Barça”.
The trip will take in a gala benefit dinner for the Chinese Handicap Association, an agreement between the two organisations and meetings with local businessmen and media.
Training Camp for five summers
Laurent Colette explained that the first fruits of this agreement would be seen in Northern China where a training camp would be held at the Beijing Olympic Stadium –the Birds’ Nest Stadium – for the next five summers for children aged between 6 and 14, with a total of 180 children a week expected to take part under the supervision of a team of Barça coaches and 25 local coaches: “it is very important to transmit the Barça philosophy to local coaches, because sooner or later China will be a world footballing power”, the Club’s marketing director commented.
“The best team in the best stadium”
Heifeng Xia explained that his organisation had chosen FC Barcelona as a partner because: “ for us, FC Barcelona is the best team in the world and the Birds Nest Stadium is the best ground in the world, we wanted the best team in the best stadium. Barça is the most influential club in China and we hope this will be a long term collaboration between us”.
Source: fcbarcelona.com
