WHILE already have a steady presence in Asia for the past couple of years, Spanish top football division league LaLiga still sees the need to further grow its footing in this part of the world, seeing it as playing a significant part for the organization moving forward.
It is a thrust that LaLiga as a group reaffirmed in the just-concluded Sports Industry Awards Asia 2019 held at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Bonifacio Global City in Taguig from Dec. 2 to 3.
“We have been working in Asia for two years and we are more than satisfied,” said Ivan Codina, director of LaLiga in Southeast Asia regarding the strategy of the competition in the continent, at the international conference, held for the fifth time and gathered anew hundreds of representatives and speakers from the South Asian sports industry and other countries.
“We carry this out through the three offices we have on the continent and a dozen international delegates. In these different territories we always work with the leagues and the local federations, we collaborate,” he added.
Representatives of the LaLiga teams participated in a panel on the international strategies of clubs, including the Brazilian football legend Ronaldo Nazario, who is now president of Real Valladolid.
Ronaldo shared during the conference that a lot of things are happening in their club and that they are excited to share them with the football fans here in Asia.
“We are changing many things in our club, and one of them is our international reach. We are starting to work internationally; we want to be well known and have people fall in love with our brand,” said Ronaldo, a two-time World Cup champion with Brazil and a highly successful pro player for two decades.
He went on to stay that he is high on LaLiga and that he is happy to be continuously involved in it.
“I have history with LaLiga, I spent seven years playing in the competition. Valladolid is a very special LaLiga club, with history and a lot of potential. It’s a big challenge, and I’m delighted with the decision I took,” he said.
Adding, “LaLiga is more competitive than ever, the clubs are very evenly balanced. And yes, it’s the best league in the world.
For Josep Borrell, commercial strategy coordinator of Valencia CF, Asia’s significance to LaLiga could not be denied, hence, the need to further enhance its presence here.
“Asia is a strategic continent for us, in fact we achieved an audience of 18 million viewers last season and we already have 1.4 million followers in Asia on our social networks,” Mr. Borrell told the conference attendees.
As of now, LaLiga currently has three offices in Asia — Singapore, China and India — as well as 12 delegates working permanently in the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Australia, among other territories.
Apart from agreements it has reached with local sponsors and specific social networks in several Asian countries, LaLiga has also signed various deals with local leagues and federations. — Michael Angelo S. Murillo
