KUALA LUMPUR: Asia, with its ever growing population of four billion people and legions of football fans, is the next global powerhouse of football and the future of the football industry, said World Football Summit (WFS) director Jan Alessie.
He said the region was home to about 59 per cent of the world’s population and has, over the years, attracted global players, especially the European clubs, to explore the untapped markets for the growth of the sport and its fan base.
Top clubs like Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal from the English Premier League; Barcelona and Real Madrid from Spain’s La Liga; as well as Italy’s Juventus and France’s Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) command huge followings and have established offices on the continent.
According to Alessie, with Chinese clubs possibly reaching the standards of their European counterparts and football likely to outrank cricket as the number one sport in India in the next few years, Asia is set to be the future of football.
While Asia’s domestic leagues are currently being overshadowed by international leagues, especially the European Leagues, Jan is optimistic that the future lies with the local leagues.
He said this in an exclusive interview with Bernama News Channel at Wisma Bernama here recently.
“No, not at all…I think one of the strategies is to strengthen the local leagues. For example, like our (WSF) partner, the La Liga, has offices in more than 50 countries, including right here in Malaysia. The La Liga is actually working hand-in-hand with the local Malaysian League to strengthen and to create an industry around football.
“I think the strategy all over the world for football is that the local league will always be the strongest. Then, the La Liga, Bundesliga or EPL will battle for second spot... but it is extremely important for the football industry as a whole to have the local league as the strongest one,” he said.
Alessie said that was why Kuala Lumpur, the home of Asian football, was chosen to host the WFS Asia from April 29-30, the first outside of Europe after three successful editions in Madrid, Spain.
Commenting further, he said some Asian countries, including Malaysia, spearheaded by Johor Crown Prince and Malaysia Football League (MFL) chairman, Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim, had strong domestic leagues.
He said the biggest challenge faced by the football industry was to captivate fans all over the world to grow the game and monetise it.
“If you compare the revenues of football clubs with any big corporations in the world, it is very small. Real Madrid, for example, have annual revenue of about 850 million euros (about RM3.9 billion) compared to Apple’s billions, which is absolutely nothing.
“However, if you compare the brand value of Apple and Real Madrid, the differences are not there…football has an extremely strong fan base, they (industries) are not monetising all those fans around the world. That is really the great challenge that global football industry faces, and that really demonstrates the potential for growth,” he said.
More than 2,000 people from the football fraternity are expected to gather at the Sunway Pyramid Convention Centre for the two-day WFS Asia, which will feature over 60 speakers, including Tunku Ismail, Fifa secretary-general Fatma Samoura, Asian Football Confederation (AFC) secretary-general Datuk Windsor Paul John, and some of La Liga’s legends among others.
“People from around 50 countries will gather, discuss, debate and network on various challenges and potentials that Asia and the world has to offer in the football and sports industries. We have European clubs coming to talk about their strategies to grow in Asia, the Asian transfer market and also other sports.
“Other sports are extremely strong in Asia, many countries are stronger in other sports than football. So, these sports have a lot to learn about how football is managed here in Asia and vice versa,” he said. Bernama