French soccer league’s Champions Trophy to be held in Shenzhen

The French soccer league’s Champions Trophy, or Trophée des Champions, will be held in Shenzhen, China for the next two seasons, according to a recent Xinhua report.

This is the second time for the event to land in China, as the Champions Trophy made debut in the country on August 2, 2014, when Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) played against En Avant de Guingamp at Beijing Workers’ Stadium.

The event, founded in 1995, played outside France for the first time in 2009 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It has since been held in Tunisia, Morocco, the United States, Gabon and China, and PSG has won the past five Champions Trophies.

The 2018 event will be presented on August 4 at the 60,000-seat Shenzhen Universiade Sports Center, as part of the collaboration between the Shenzhen municipal government, Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP) and Kaisa Culture Sports and Tourism Group.

In February 2017, the French Football Federation and LFP opened a joint office in Beijing as part of their expansion plan in China.

As LFP President Nathalie Boy de la Tour said, “International development, especially in China, constitutes one of the priorities of our strategic plan.”

Source: Xinhua

Proofread by William Logsdon