Liverpool FC plans to play preseason exhibitions in Asia next year but hasn’t finalized any markets yet, according to Billy Hogan, the club’s chief commercial officer.
Hogan said that business staff will evaluate markets later this year and meet with the soccer staff to get their feedback before finalizing a preseason plan, but more than likely, they will return to Asia.
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Liverpool is an international draw.
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES
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“We’ve got a significant fan base throughout Asia, and it’s also an important market for [jersey sponsor] Standard Chartered,” Hogan said.
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In addition to being an important market for Standard Chartered, Liverpool’s training jersey partner, Garuda, is based in Indonesia. It has a regional sponsorship with Honda Motorcycles in Thailand, a sponsorship with smartphone brand Xolo in India and a sponsorship with the online-trading service InstaForex in the Asia region.
Hogan said he would like to expand the team’s roster of regional sponsorships in the coming years. It already has global deals in most of the major categories such as airline, beer, automotive and banking.
“Now it’s a question of where we have opportunities on a regional level,” Hogan said.
The team last did a tour to Asia in 2013. It played before 85,000 spectators in Jakarta and 55,000 spectators in Thailand.
