Spanish league looking for foothold in China

In an effort to expand its reach overseas, the president of the Spanish league invited 40 leading Chinese businessmen to watch Real Madrid play Barcelona.

The aim, of course, was to impress upon them that soccer in Spain has commercial possibilities in China.

”We have to increase our income,” Spanish league president Javier Tebas said Friday at a news conference. ”We need to go out into the world more.”

The league opened an office in Dubai last year and now has another in Beijing. They are available to Spanish clubs who want to increase their profile abroad.

Tebas said four clubs had already signed deals with Chinese companies, although he did not give details.

Tebas also spoke about match-fixing, saying all Spanish matches are being monitored for manipulation.

”We have been active in research while maintaining regular meetings with national and international agencies and have asked police to create a specialized unit to deal with fraud,” Tebas said.