La Liga football is now gaining unprecedented traction, starting its internationalization journey with the opening of offices in the UAE and China in 2014. The efforts made to attract more international fans since 2017 have paid off and the future can be expected.
La Liga Alliance global business profile, including 11 offices and 44 delegates, covering 90 countries
This week marks the fifth anniversary of la Liga's unique internationalization strategy, which has propelled La Liga's growth around the world and made the event a world-leading example in the sports industry in terms of internationalization. Prior to its global development in 2017, La Liga's internationalisation strategy dates back to 2014, with the opening of its first international offices in the UAE and China.
Today, La Liga's office in China is one of its 11 international offices, with two joint ventures in North America and China. Launched in 2017, la Liga Global Network currently has 44 local representatives in 41 countries. La Liga's ambitious global development strategy now covers 90 countries and has become one of the hallmarks of its progress. This has not only created a channel to spread the passion of Spanish football to all parts of the world, but also made more and more people fall in love with La Liga and enjoy its wonderful and rich games every week.
At the "Eight Years: La Liga Internationalization Journey – Media Meet and Greet" in Shanghai, Sergi Torrents, General Manager of La Liga China, looked back on the development of La Liga in China over the past 8 years, which has helped La Liga enter a new area: "In 2014, we started our internationalization strategy from the East, and we set up the first international offices of La Liga in China and the United Arab Emirates. Adapting to the local kick-off time adjustment strategy allows fans around the world to enjoy La Liga in local prime time, and as the schedule changes, we also want to explore the Chinese market from the beginning, because we know that our fan base is expanding, and China is also undergoing football reform, which is our ambitious mission. ”
Sergi Torenz, General Manager of La Liga China, spoke at the meeting
The growth of La Liga's global fan base proves that this internationalization strategy is effective. It is worth mentioning that La Liga has 146 million fans, which is also the largest of the five major leagues in Europe. In China, more than 8 million followers follow and interact with La Liga every day through four different social media platform accounts. In addition, La Liga regularly posts regular content covering more than 20 languages on 17 different social media platforms around the world to ensure that fans of different languages can have a unimpeded discussion of Spanish football matches.
Every year, Chinese fans enjoy offline activities around events such as the National Derby and the Catalan Derby, which not only bring different forms of Western experience, but also provide Chinese fans with content dedicated to the exchange and interaction with local celebrities and La Liga ambassadors at the international level. La Liga has organized twice as many events as in the past, as many as 1222 times, and in more than 90 countries. These events help to bring the competitive and passionate Europa League to supporters and the media outside Spain. In China, fans enjoy the national derby and the Catalan derby. In addition, sharing la Liga's football development experience with the rest of the world is one of its goals, with La Liga currently having 37 agreements with leagues, associations and other institutions in 28 countries and 24 education alliances with top universities from 24 countries through LaLiga Business School. It is worth mentioning that La Liga has maintained close strategic cooperation with the Ministry of Education of China, the Chinese Football Association and the Chinese Super League, and has contributed to the cause of Chinese football.
In October 2021, fans gathered in Shanghai to watch the live broadcast of the national derby, which was very exciting
In response, Sergi Torenc added: "When it comes to fans from countries outside Spain, we always want La Liga to be the second league in their minds after the home league. The National League is the true engine of football, which is why La Liga shares its secret to success in China and globally with leagues, associations and clubs around the world. La Liga's long-standing commitment to the development of football in China is part of our strategy here, from carrying out football education projects in cooperation with the Ministry of Education to contributing to the development of professional football together with the Chinese Football Association and the Chinese Super League. ”
Growing fan interest in La Liga and its widespread popularity have allowed the tournament to grow its global audience by 30% since the 2015/16 season. Similarly, la Liga's international broadcast rights have also increased by 247% since the 2013/14 season, and la Liga's brand value has also increased, with the number of sponsors increasing fivefold over the same period.
In response, Scar Mayo, Executive Manager of La Liga, commented: "The growing number of business partners around the world proves the growing importance of La Liga, which also proves that our league is closer than ever to fans around the world. Describing La Liga's partnerships with local businesses, Sergi Torenz added: "La Liga is a platform that allows our partners to reach a wider audience through brand associations, digital impact, visibility and events. Having a local office allows us to better communicate with local partners and connect with our fans. "These figures not only confirm that Spanish football does indeed attract fans from all over the world, but also the success of the international development strategy implemented by La Liga over the past eight years. La Liga, although held only in Spain, have received close attention from fans around the world.
A good viewing experience is another core element of La Liga's global presence. Over the past few years, La Liga has continued to improve the viewing experience through strong investments in drones, aerial photography and technologies such as volumetric photography and support for 360-degree playback, all through the continuous development and enhancement of broadcast partners.
On the future of La Liga, Oscar Mayo said: "We are on an exciting journey to bring joy to people all over the world. We will continue to move forward towards this great goal of bringing fantastic matches to La Liga fans around the world and making our game known to more people. Now is just the beginning for us. ”
About La Liga
The Spanish professional football league LaLiga (La Liga) is a global, innovative and socially responsible sports league, as well as a leader in the field of leisure and entertainment. The league organizes the Spanish professional football leagues , La Liga and La Liga , with 20 La Liga clubs and 22 La Liga clubs , affecting more than 2.8 billion people worldwide in the 2018/19 season. Headquartered in Madrid, La Liga has 11 permanent offices and 46 foreign representatives in 55 countries and territories around the world. In 2014, La Liga opened an office in Shanghai, China. In 2020, La Liga formed a joint venture with Mediapro and Xinying Sports, SFCM, dedicated to the commercialization of sponsorship and licensing. The league is actively involved in social activities through its fund LaLiga Genuine, and is the only professional football league in the world to have a league of intellectually disabled players.