On the Scene - La Liga Chiefs Unveil Asian Expansion Plans

(WFI) Spain’s La Liga has set its sights on increasing its global reach by launching the International LFP Cup on the second and final day of the Soccerex Asian Forum in Singapore.

The annual pre-season tournament will be a global event featuring three La Liga clubs and the first will be held in an as-yet-undecided South East Asian nation either at the end of July or in the third week of August 2011.

La Liga has committed to hold three of the first five events in South East Asia with details of the first event to be formalized by the end of the year.

“We are trying to change gear the way the Spanish league is promoted, not only the league but the players and also the sport of football,” Francisco Roca, La Liga’s chief executive, told Soccerex delegates today.

“I say changing gears because so far most of the promotion of the Spanish league has been driven by the individual efforts of FC Barcelona and Real Madrid.

“This has been extremely successful for us because those are the two elite teams of the Spanish league, but it’s not enough.

“They will obviously continue to do their individual efforts to do their tours every pre-season but we think that as a competition we are mature enough to be able to promote not only our two elite teams but also the other teams of the Spanish league, especially the first division.”

La Liga will embark on the project with their global television partners Mediapro, and Roca is confident the Spanish set-up can play a role in helping to develop football in Asia as well as increasing their own profile in the market.

“We’ll make a very proactive effort in being more present in this market, not only from the competition standpoint of this kind of event but also from the promotion of the sport,” he said.

“[We will be] working with the local federations and the local league and helping to do work in the grassroots area and the promotion of new football talent that I think is essential and is well done in this part of the world.

“If football doesn’t really doesn’t take off in this part of the world we can never say seriously that we are a global sport if football is not a well developed sport in Asia.

"This is one of the main reasons why we are interested in being present in Asia.”

Roca’s announcement was the highlight of the final day of the inaugural Soccerex Asian Forum, which also featured seminars on the value of pre-season tours and the development of young talent.

Representatives of the nations bidding for the hosting rights for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup were in attendance, with Russia and Qatar continuing their push. England’s 2018 bid team also had a small presence.

The Japanese bid continued their work in a low-key manner but representatives from the remaining bid committees were absent.

Australian 2022 World Cup bid officials, meanwhile, were in Kuala Lumpur handing over their bid book for the hosting of the 2015 AFC Asian Cup finals.

The conference concluded with a forum involving current Thailand coach Bryan Robson who was joined by Ossie Ardiles – the former Tottenham manager who has vast experience working across Asia - and ex-Liverpool duo Steve McMahon and Phil Thompson on the latest issues in the global game.



Michael Church reports from the Soccerex Asian Forum in Singapore


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