Chinese authorities "must do more to protect intellectual property rights if the country is serious about hosting the World Cup finals in the future," a senior exec said after thousands of fans "fell victim to a ticketing scam" in the lead-up to this year’s tournament, according to Michael Church of the SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST. Almost 3,500 fans were sold tickets by Chinese travel agencies "only to be told they were not valid just days before the competition started." Larry Zheng, VP of Shankai Sports, which holds the exclusive rights to sell World Cup hospitality packages in China on FIFA's behalf, said that this was an issue authorities "must tackle if the country was serious" about realizing President Xi Jinping’s ambition of one day hosting the event. Zheng said, "I would probably say the marketing guys from FIFA need to do much more in China than they do in countries like the U.K. They need to have a treaty between themselves and the Chinese government to protect their intellectual property because recently the central government in China has signed an agreement with the IOC to protect the Winter Olympic intellectual properties in relation to the official marks, logos and mascots and everything, which is a very good move. I think because everyone is expecting to take the World Cup to China, there's a long journey and we need to start from scratch. To protect and respect intellectual property is the first step the Chinese government needs to work on" (SCMP, 7/5).
