Who you meet at SportAccord And Why it Matters
22 Jan 2026 10:48

Even though the 2014-15 La Liga finished two weeks ago, the attention still not be drawn back from Spain. In the past season, more and more China enterprises started partnering with Spanish clubs. After won the title of Campeonato de España and La Liga, Barcelona officially announced the partnership with OPPO. China smart phone giants would cooperate with Barcelona in football events, fans activities, commercials and products. Not only OPPO, Qianbao, Huawei, Wanda also invested in La Liga these years. And what they are interested in is the opportunities behind the league.
Dated back to 2007, Yingli became the first China sponsor in La Liga, they built partnership with Osasuna who relegated to Segunda Division then. Then, Li Ning, Suning, Huawei stepped onto spain. Wang Jianlin, the founder of Wanda even purchased 20% share of Atlético de Madrid with 45 million Euros.
Why Chinese enterprises prefer Spain than the others. The experts pointed it out that, compared to La Liga, Bundesliga and Ligue 1 are not well-known enough, Serie A is going down, while the sponsor fee is way too expensive in Premier League. In the influence of financial crisis, most clubs in La liga are in debt, several of them even went bankrupt in past years. The clubs, especially the small ones have to find sponsors themselves. Although the financial trouble, La Liga is still really popular, it could attract more than 400 million fans to watch in every matchday.
Coincidentally, Chinese enterprises are trying to capture more European markets at the same time. By sponsoring football, the companies boost their revenue rapidly. Huawei, Wanda, even Qianbao benefited from the sponsoring enouously. In January of 2014, the number of user for Qianbao is about 5 million, which doubled after one year sponsoring.
Expect for the monetary benefit, the sense of worth is another reason for Chinese firms to invest in Spain. As the CEO of OPPO explained, they thought Barcelona is playing artistic football which matches OPPO`s pursuit.
However, not every Chinese sponsors are successful, Li Ning and Xtep withdrew after several seasons, Qianbao just signed a short time sponsorship with two clubs. We are not able to predict anything, who can?
Source: Sina.com
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