South African organisers make slim profit from Nations Cup

World’s second-biggest economy misses out on EPL jamboree

HONG KONG: The Premier League’s top sides went on money-spinning tours of Asia this month that saw them take in a total of six countries or territories. But there was one glaring omission: mainland China.

Many businesses see the fastdeveloping country – now the world’s second-biggest economy – as “the holy grail”, said Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore, adding that he didn’t “quite see it in the same way”.

Nor, seemingly, do Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Spurs, Sunderland and Manchester rivals United and City, all of whom have been in Asia on lucrative pre-season trips, without including mainland China on their exhaustive itineraries.

Football and marketing experts said there were a number of commercial, logistical and sporting reasons for staying away.

“We are in a very fortunate position in that we operate in 212 countries and China is in the top 10 of our strategic markets,” Scudamore said in Hong Kong last week, where City, Spurs and Sunderland each played two games in four days in the Premier League’s Barclays Asia Trophy.

Each team picked up £1.2mil for appearing in the exhibition tournament, according to The Daily Telegraph.

“For a lot of businesses, in terms of business and marketing, China seems to be the holy grail. We don’t quite see it in the same way because as I said, we are in a fortunate position where we are in so many other countries,” said Scudamore.

“But clearly, just looking at the numbers, it’s a huge country and hugely emerging, emerging in terms of its sporting culture.

“And therefore we are involved in China, we have good partners in China – it took us a while to find them, but we have some very good partners in China.

“It’s not just a broadcasting entity, it’s a marketing entity and we are working out in the regions in China because you cannot really describe China as a single entity, given the size, the scope and the expansion of it.”

Premier League teams in recent weeks played in front of fanatical sell-out crowds in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. The clubs charge appearance fees and they benefit from sales of official merchandise, as well as trading on their huge popularity by signing myriad sponsorship deals.

Tiger Tian, a sports marketing expert in Beijing, said a combination of factors had kept English teams out of China this summer. Arsenal, United and City were all in the country last year, he noted, but said

For a lot of businesses, China seems to be the holy grail. We don’t quite see it in the same way... — RICHARD SCUDAMORE

football fans in major cities were becoming increasingly “picky”.

“They’re fed-up with big names but poor performances, which unfortunately had been the case on several occasions when Premier League teams visited before,” said Tian, explaining that was less the fault of the teams and more the travelling, difficult pitches and limited quality of the opposition.

“Rapidly rising costs and limited sources of revenue are also threatening promoters’ bottom lines. Premier League teams, like everyone else in the world, see China as a goldmine and ask for higher and higher appearance fees.

“Obtaining all kinds of government permits is also extremely demanding in terms of both time and funds, and there’s always a danger of a last-minute shutdown.”

SeveralgamesinvolvingEuropean teams in China have been shelved at the eleventh hour.

In May, a friendly between Italian giants AC Milan and Dutch champions Ajax in Beijing was cancelled three weeks before kick-off because of “organisational reasons”. The organisers had failed to pay an appearance fee on time, Chinese media said.

Barcelona also ditched their August game in Shanghai “after coming to the conclusion that it could not be played in perfect conditions”, the club said.

Julian Jackson, of the sports marketing agency Total Sports Asia, said there was “a fairly easy reason” why China had not got in on the Premier League jamboree.

The league’s failure to strike a deal to have games shown on China’s all-powerful state broadcaster CCTV means it simply does not have the same following as elsewhere in the football-mad region, he said.

“Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand traditionally have stronger support for the teams that come here.

“They’ve had every single match on television for the last six or seven years. China on the other hand is just really dipping its toes into the Premier League.” — AFP JOHANNESBURG: South African organisers made a slim profit of US$366,000 from the African Nations Cup in January and February, way behind the huge commercial success of the country’s historic 2010 World Cup.

Delivering the final report and financial results for the Nations Cup, the local organising committee (LOC) said late on Monday that they also had exceeded their own expectations on the three-week tournament by about US$305,000 having initially expected to make just US$60,000.

The report “clearly depicts a positive financial position for the tournament,” LOC chairman Mwelo Nonkonyana said.

More than anything, it underlined the massive gap between Africa’s top tournament and the money-spinning World Cup, and showed how far the Nations Cup lags behind in commercialising its product.

The Nations Cup was never expected to rival the success of the World Cup, but the large gap between the two was significant.

South African football was left with about US$80mil from FIFA to develop its grassroots game following the hosting of the 2010 World Cup. That figure also did not include the money local organisers made off ticket sales. FIFA generated revenue of US$3.655bil from the 2010 World Cup and made a profit of nearly US$2.5bil, the world body said in their financial report for that year.

The Confederation of African Football haven’t made public their earnings from their biennial showpiece, but they projected in January revenue of just US$10mil from the latest Nations Cup.

African football tournaments struggle with the continent’s economic factors, where fans are generally poorer and with far less disposable income.

Some of Africa’s lesser-known teams also have little appeal for global audiences.

The LOC said the total attendance for the 32-gametournamentwasjustover750,000 with an average attendance of about 23,000 per game, less than half the average attendance of the World Cup. However, it was an improvement on the last Nations Cup.

South Africa also conceded that it had a very small budget to promote its Nations Cup.

“With AFCON (the African Nations Cup) ... nobody knew what was happening until the last moment,” South African sports minister Fikile Mbalula said.

Nigeria won the Nations Cup in South Africa for their third title, beating littleknown Burkina Faso in the final at Johannesburg’s Soccer City.

South Africa also will host the African Nations Championship, a tournament for Africa-based players, next year. — AP