Chelsea Football Club's plans for world domination came a mouse-click closer to realization on Monday with a Chinese Internet tie-up that adds more than 100 million people to the club's potential fanbase.
The launch of a Mandarin language Web site in conjunction with China's biggest portal, Sina, is part of an intensifying global contest for hearts and wallets that pits the London side against Manchester United, Real Madrid and Juventus.
It will soon be followed by the release of a Bollywood film aimed at making Stamford Bridge lovers out of India's middle-class, as well as a pre-season tour to the US by Jose Mourinho's team and an intensified Asia marketing strategy with Adidas and Samsung.
With the world's biggest population and the fastest growing economy, China is seen as having huge potential by soccer giants such as Manchester United and Real Madrid, both of which have sent teams to tour here in recent years.
Apart from lucrative friendlies every couple of years, few foreign clubs have made much money here because average incomes are below ?1,000 (US$1.932) per year.
Two Manchester United-themed restaurants in Chengdu were recently forced to close because customers were not willing to pay extra for the brand.
Instead of opening their own outlets, Chelsea -- which is neck and neck with Manchester United in terms of popularity, according to market research surveys -- will focus their efforts on the Internet, grassroots support and cooperation with the national soccer association.
Their new Web site partner, Sina, is the most powerful force in the Chinese Internet, which has more than 120 million users. Sina will translate material from Chelsea's English Web site and add comment from a local perspective in return for a share of revenues from advertising, sponsorship, online sales and membership subscriptions. Within a year, it is expected to turn a profit.
At its launch, the Web site featured a video clip of Ashley Cole speaking Mandarin with a cockney accent, still pictures of Frank Lampard kissing his ring finger to celebrate a goal and a haggard Mourinho reading from an autocue about how much he is looking forward to answering questions from millions of Chinese fans.
In the days and months ahead, Chelsea will also announce plans for a first-team tour of China -- possibly as early as 2008 -- and the hosting of the Chinese Olympic soccer team at the London club's training ground later this year. In association with the Asian Football Confederation, Chelsea will also expand a grass-roots coaching program from the current two cities -- Qingdao and Wuhan -- to 15, including Beijing and Shanghai.
Dong Lu, a leading Chinese soccer journalist, said Chelsea appealed to young fans.
"Their popularity has grown in the past two or three years because of the impressive power of their soccer. Until now, their fans have been scattered around a number of different bulletin boards," he said.
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