Yutang Weekly (9.14-9.20)

UK-China Football Development Forum advances soccer hopes

UK-China Football Forum was held in London on Sep.18. The forum was co-hosted by China's State General Administration of Sports, the UK's Department for Culture, Media & Sport and the British Council. As the first government-backed exchange event on the development of the sport, the forum was aimed at helping improve Chinese soccer through communication between the two sides.

ExxonMobil signs partnership with CBA and basketball player Yi Jianlian

ExxonMobil announced partnership with Chinese basketball player Yi Jianlian on Sept 15. Yi becomes the first brand ambassador of Mobil, a popular product of ExxonMobil, in China. The two parties agreed to do some online and on-ground engagement activities with customers, and the theme of the campaigns is decided to be “safeguard”.

IBF announces strong market entry into China

The International Boxing Federation Global (IBF), a non-profit organization governing the efficiency and uniformity in the supervision of professional boxing, announced strong market entry plans into China with the appointment of Ruihang Wang as the President of IBF China, who will serve as the official and exclusive representative of IBF in the Greater China region, including Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.

David Beckham teams up with Kent & Curwen for Chinese Market

Sports tailor Kent & Curwen and David Beckham have entered an agreement to promote, design, manufacture and distribute products of the brand for six years until the end of 2020 with a view to the Mainland Chinese market. 

Li Na to represent 51Talk

51Talk, a leading online English language teaching platform based in China, held a press conference on Wednesday to announce an endorsement deal with Li Na, former Chinese tennis super star.

Hangzhou named host city of 2022 Asian Games

Hangzhou, capital city of Zhejiang Province in east China, was chosen by the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) to host the 2022 Asian Games on Wednesday. The OCA awarded Hangzhou, the sole bidder, the rights to host the regional games at its 34th Congress in Ashkhabad, Turkmenistan on Wednesday.

West Bromwich Albion launch in China

remier League side West Bromwich Albion has launched on Chinese social media platform Weibo on Sep.11, with WeChat to shortly follow. With traditional social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube inaccessible in China, the effective way to communicate with fans in China is via specific platforms, primarily Weibo and WeChat.

Sun Jihai becomes Manchester City's ambassador

Former China international Sun Jihai will become the Club Ambassador in China for English Premier League club Manchester City. The club announced Friday on its website that the Chinese Sun will "make a return to the Club" after he spent six years with the Blues between 2002 to 2008, making 130 appearances and scoring on four occasions.

Ligue 1 launch on WeChat to engage with more fans

At the outset of the 2015-16 season, the LFP is launching Ligue 1's official account on the international platform provided by the WeChat app. Standings, results, videos, articles, competitions: the French top-tier football competition account will offer - in English - a wide range of information and services for fans.

Industrial Bank Company Ltd inks deal with Shanghai Marathon

The Industrial Bank Company Ltd has signed a 5-year deal withthe Shanghai International Marathon becoming both the honorary sponsor of the event from 2015-2019, and the official partner of the Shanghai Half Marathon. The Fuzhou based Industrial Bank correspondingly announced the launch of their new credit card brand "Huolirensheng(vital life)" at the event.