Beijing’s hosting of football’s Asia Trophy will make it become the continent's football centre, according to the director of the Beijing Football Association (BFA).
Tottenham Hotspur, West Ham United and Hull City will contest the Asia Trophy tournament with Beijing Guoan on July 29 and 31 as part of the Beijing International Football Festival, which also includes the Italian Super Cup between Inter Milan and Lazio on August 8.
"The 2009 Asia Trophy will bring splendour to the festival," said BFA director Hu Zhaoguan as quoted by Reuters. "It will help us improve the status of Beijing in world sport and make Beijing the capital of Asian football."
Richard Masters, director of sales and marketing for the Premier League added: "It's not really a commercial enterprise in the sense that it doesn't make finance for the Premier League, what it does is provide something back. What we export at the moment is a television signal. I think it's very important for us to be visible here. We don't always have the big clubs coming so it provides an opportunity for the smaller clubs to experience Asia and build their fan bases here."
It will be the first time that the biennial tournament will not feature one of the top four clubs from the preceding season of the Premier League. Chelsea (2003), Everton (2005) and Liverpool (2007) played in the previous three versions.
