Asia's big appetite for soccer offers European clubs a fabulous opportunity for commercial growth but so far they have only flirted with the region's one billion fans, said the head of consulting firm Football Asia. While leading English clubs such as Manchester United and Liverpool had long viewed Asia as a goldmine, their efforts to tap that market barely scratched the surface of the potential revenue on offer, CEO Jon Collins said in an interview.
"For a long time European clubs have been looking at Asia and flirting with it. They see it as the Holy Grail, all these fans out here," he added. "But they've had limited success in commercialising and when they have done it they've had a lot of criticism..." The Asian Football Confederation has frequently expressed its concern about European teams' commercial tours of the region, particularly while its own competitions like the Asian Cup were being run.
Collins agreed the perception of these tours had often cast the clubs in a bad light and they needed to rethink their approach to Asia or risk missing out on a massive pay day. "They come over here, they play a friendly, stay in five star luxury hotels, first class travel and accommodation, 10 minute Kodak moments with the right charities and they leave with a big bag of money," said Collins.
"I think that's why the AFC have criticised European clubs a lot for coming out here. I don't think the clubs mean to do that, I just think they don't know how to go about it the right way." Football Asia, which officially launched on Monday, sees itself as a bridge between European clubs and Asia.
It has already been engaged by English Premier League and Serie A clubs in seeking shirt sponsors for next season, as well as teams looking for Asian brands for their official travel, drinks and mobile sponsors. Collins believes that while finding a lucrative shirt sponsor for a team would be a good start, the opportunities for explosive growth via "micro revenues" are what clubs should be trying to cash in on.
"Clubs are focused on the 'low hanging fruit', the macro revenue - the $20 million shirt deal or official airline, official beer etc. "But the real revenue is going to come from getting a dollar a year off every fan in Asia. Or a dollar month. That kind of micro revenue is where it's going to be. "According to estimates, there are over one billion people in Asia watching the big games. One billion fans."
MOBILE SERVICES Collins highlighted mobile services as one area where clubs could develop money-spinning partnerships with Asian firms. "I think the clubs would be willing to supply specific content for Asia and do a revenue share with the mobile company. That type of micro revenue model is what clubs have to look at. "Ok if you get a $20 million deal this year for your shirt, if you do fantastically well, next year it might be $25 million.
In real terms that's not massive growth. "But if clubs start to look more at micro revenues they could suddenly explode their own revenue base. Football has the potential for exponential growth in Asia." The company also sees quality tournaments as the way forward for clubs touring Asia - getting Manchester United to face Liverpool, Real Madrid to play Barcelona, instead of European sides putting eight goals past local teams.
"The reason you can't do that right now is that the commercial model doesn't work. You have to pay match fees to the clubs, and the sources of revenue are limited because clubs generally want sponsorship and media rights, so we've got to approach clubs with a different commercial model. "Asia wants to see the big games but you've got to make it commercially viable for promoters and businesses to do it."
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