Chinese conglomerate Fosun plans to exert its "influence" to spread the name of League Championship side Wolverhampton across China, according to the EXPRESS & STAR.
During a meeting of the Wolves Fans' Parliament, Fosun supremo and main club Dir Jeff Shi: "We are in the process of negotiating to purchase some broadcasting rights in China. That will be on ‘live’ there. We are planning to introduce some of our merchandise to China and have ambitions to design a summer tournament in China, maybe even inviting teams from Portugal and France." Laurie Dalrymple, who was promoted to managing director in a hierarchical reshuffle last month, said that "no other Championship club was exploring the China TV option."
He said, "The journey is going to be brick by brick but I’m not aware of any other Championship clubs negotiating broadcasting rights in China. There’s a genuine desire and appetite to increase our profile over there ... That accelerates enormously when we are promoted but we want to start it now. Matches broadcast live through one of the biggest broadcast channels in China is another game-changer for us." Super Sports Media Group "is the exclusive Premier League rights holder in China." It is not known precisely what deal Wolves "could negotiate or how many matches could be shown, but there have been similar examples such as all of Cardiff’s home matches being broadcast in Malaysia" (EXPRESS & STAR, 10/3).
