The Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) is to launch an account on Weibo, the popular Chinese social media platform, as part of wider work with the Sportfive agency.
The agency has been recruited to support the RFEF as it bids to increase the market presence and visibility of the Spanish national team in the world’s most populous country.
Along with establishing the national team’s presence on Weibo, Sportfive has also been appointed to commercialise the national team’s assets and sponsorship rights in China. The Weibo account will go live on November 2.
Announcing the agreement, Sportfive and the RFEF claimed that there are 114 million football fans in China who are “passionate” about Spanish football.
Echo Li, Sportfive’s managing director in Greater China and senior vice-president of global partnerships, said: “The Spanish National Football Team is a leading pioneer in world football. With this cooperation, we hope to support RFEF in engaging with local football fans in China market, while bringing more opportunities for brands with global aspirations.”
At the start of the week, the general assembly of the RFEF approved its 2019-20 accounts and forecast revenues of €357m ($417.4m) for the 2020-21 period.
A profit of €592,000 was registered for the last 12-month period.
A total of €122.8m from broadcast rights revenue has been budgeted in 2020-21, along with €80.6m in sponsorship revenues, according to figures reported by Spain’s Palco23.
