Chinese patrons pour €100M annually into 16 Spanish clubs

China, with more than 1.3 billion people, is a very attractive market for European football clubs and Spanish clubs such as Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid and Valencia, are the most popular clubs being after by Chinese patrons. 

China has a great presence in La Liga and has been involved in some way with almost all the clubs in the top division of Spanish football. 16 out of 20 La Liga clubs have ownership, sponsorship or other commercial relationship with Chinese individuals or companies, according to AS. Although the figures are confidential in many cases, it is estimated that the Chinese agreements with Spanish clubs are worth more than 100 million euro a year. 

In some cases, revenue streamed from the relationship is even more lucrative than income from TV rights. Real Madrid, for example, 244 million euro was collected from marketing rights deals in 2014-15 season, accounting for 37% of the 660 million overall revenue. And only 140 million euro was from TV rights.

So clear is it for la Liga clubs that China is the best business partner to have. A few weeks ago Javier Tebas, the La Liga president, visited China and signed a big deal with Kingdomway, a hi-tech company based in Xiamen, making the brand their new sponsor in Asia. The deal actually includes seven different deals.

Source: AS