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Real Madrid calls for early kick-offs for Chinese fans

Spanish football club Real Madrid is calling for earlier kick-off times in Spain’s league so that more fans in China can watch the matches.

The league’s director general, Francisco Roca, said the he would not rule out an experiment this season to see if the plan worked.

The matches often kick off around 10pm Spanish time, and 4am Beijing time.

“We, as the Spanish league, believe the possibility of playing matches at a reasonable hour for China will help our competition a lot and also the Spanish teams, which will be better known,” said club director Emilio Butragueno, as reported by Reuters.

He added that the arrival of arguably the sport’s two biggest stars, Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka, in the league thjis summer had created a better opportunity than ever for the league to leverage its popularity in the Asian market.