|
|
|
|
| GAME
PLAN |
|
Holy salkow, Batman, Miki’s back! Yes, Japan’s very own Babe on Ice, Miki Ando, roared back to form in the opening event of the Grand Prix figure skating series, not only winning October’s Skate America competition in Connecticut, but overshadowing younger teen star Mao Asada, everybody’s current tip for greatness. Ando, of course, was panned after finishing a disappointing 15th at the Turin Olympics, but she’s lost a bit of chunkiness and taken her skating to a higher level; maybe now she will start to fulfill her promise. Next up on the calendar is the NHK Trophy from November 30 to December 3 in Nagano. Japan’s women skaters are hot right now. Catch them while you can. FV See sports listings for details.
|
By
Fred Varcoe
Asian Invasion
 |
| Kazuyuki Toda |
When Everton played Manchester City in England's
Premier League on January 1, the match attracted a few extra
viewers. In fact, it drew an audience of around 300 million
in China because each team featured a player—Everton's
Li Tie and Sun Jihai of City—from that country in their
lineups. Clearly, the significance of the match had less to
do with the unique pairing of two Chinese players in a European
league than with those 300 million.
These days, most Premier League games attract a fair number
of Asian spectators, and not just on TV. You can't help
but notice their faces at the grounds. Twenty years ago, you'd
have been hard-pressed to see any, but with the globalization
of soccer, Asian spectators are now playing a significant
part in the fortunes of clubs in Europe. It all started with
those athletes, like Korea's Cha Bum Suk and Japan's
Yasuhiko Okudera, who had to fight the odds to make their
mark in European leagues. In those days, the game was less
commercial, less global. But that began to change when Kazu
Miura joined Serie A club Genoa in 1994, bringing with him
an added bonus: a year's worth of sponsorship from an
electronics company. Likewise Li Tie, who arrived with an
endorsement from China's largest mobile phone company.
And it's obvious the phone company wasn't aiming
at the Premier League's domestic viewers: the shirt logo
and board adverts were in Chinese.
 |
While China is the world's biggest market, Japan still
leads the way in international Asian soccer, and for all its
economic woes, the Japanese economy still has considerable
selling power. Now Japan, too, has its own version of the
Clash of the Titans, when Hidetoshi Nakata's Parma faces
Shunsuke Nakamura's Reggina in Italy's Serie A.
While Japan cannot match the viewing audience of China, it
more than makes up for it in marketing power. Nakata is one
of soccer's top earners, an athlete who can shift $10
million worth of shirts for a club. Very soon, England's
Premier League may be able to provide its own star match-up
should Kazuyuki Toda sign with Sunderland and face Junichi
Inamoto at Fulham. Inamoto has finally made his mark this
season after a disappointing year at Arsenal. Disappointing
for him, that is; Arsenal did fine out of the deal, selling
a heapload of shirts.
“I don't think it was pure coincidence that in
the week that Arsenal signed Junichi Inamoto, they launched
their Asian website service, which inevitably achieved massive
interest because of Inamoto's arrival,” The Daily
Telegraph's senior football writer Henry Winter told
Metropolis. “English clubs are such sophisticated commercial
creatures now that they look to expand their revenue however
they can, and tapping into the vast Asian market makes sense—or
dollars and cents. Club accountants know that simply having
a Japanese or Chinese international on their books will generate
millions in merchandising on the streets of Tokyo and Beijing.
Managers are effectively being told that they need to buy
an Asian player even if they have no intention of playing
him because the deal will comfortably pay for itself in shirt
sales.
“When clubs go through their players' post, thousands
of letters a week have Asian postmarks. The next step for
Asian footballers is to be taken seriously as footballers
as well as money-spinners. Li Tie is helping change the image,
as is Inamoto, but it will take some time before English managers
are convinced that signing Asian players is anything but a
commercial exercise.”
Perhaps 300 million Chinese would disagree.
Shunsuke Nakamura (Reggina) vs.
Hidetoshi Nakata (Parma), April 27; Song Chong Gug (Feyenoord)
vs. Park Ji Sung and Lee Young Po (PSV Eindhoven), May 18:
SKY PerfecTV (broadcast info not available at press time).
Photo cred: JK Press
top
|