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Club giants visit for their own ends, not to develop local game

SINGAPORE — “Enjoying our Chinese tour,” tweeted Bayern Munich head coach Carlo Ancelotti last week alongside a picture of some of his players at the National Stadium at the Singapore Sports Hub.

Bayern Munich playing against  Inter Milan at the National Stadium  last month. No club with ambitions to be part of the European elite can ignore the Asian market. Photo: Reuters

Bayern Munich playing against Inter Milan at the National Stadium last month. No club with ambitions to be part of the European elite can ignore the Asian market. Photo: Reuters

SINGAPORE — “Enjoying our Chinese tour,” tweeted Bayern Munich head coach Carlo Ancelotti last week alongside a picture of some of his players at the National Stadium at the Singapore Sports Hub.

The German giants were taking part then in the Singapore section of the International Champions Cup (ICC) against Inter Milan and Chelsea, the latest in a lengthening list of pre-season games and tournaments played here, and elsewhere in Asia.

For a coach known for his attention to detail, it was quite a mistake for Ancelotti not to know which country he and his team were in.

Yet, such is the summer schedule for these huge clubs that it is perhaps understandable that the Italian was confused.

Before Singapore, the German champions played matches in Shanghai and Shenzhen as part of their China tour before coming to Singapore.

Soon after the final whistle sounded in their last ICC game against Inter, the Germans were Bavaria-bound to host the Audi Cup, the four-team tournament at the Allianz Arena, featuring Liverpool, Atletico Madrid and Napoli.

In other words, there is little time for touring teams to see anything other than pitches, hotels and training facilities. There is also, as such, little time to “put something back” into the local game, such as holding coaching clinics.

This is often a charge laid on by critics of such exhibition games — that the local game does not benefit when top clubs come a-visiting, while these teams leave with their pockets padded with appearance money after playing a game or two at a slower pace.

However, as Jacksen Tiago, who has been managing in South-east Asia for 15 years, points out, there is not much clubs can do during their visits.

Besides, the Brazilian added: “Local football can’t be improved with only one exhibition game — that is not realistic.”

Likewise, a former chairman of the Chinese Football Association once told this writer that exhibition games should be regarded as the sporting equivalent of pop concerts, where famous acts come, sell tickets, perform a show and then go somewhere else. Nobody expects Beyonce or Big Bang to concern themselves about the local music scene.

Pre-season football tours have become as slick as the biggest-selling pop acts over the years. English teams started arriving in South-east Asia in the 1970s. Little to no money was made then.

That is no longer the case. No club with ambitions to be part of the European elite is able to ignore the Asian market. These are lucrative activities for the big clubs in terms of short-term revenue generation and also in the longer-term building of fan bases. Singapore, Thailand, China, Malaysia are seen as interchangeable stops on tours carried out for marketing and financial purposes. And there is plenty of money to be made, with tickets ranging from S$40 to S$188 at the Sports Hub.

Indeed, almost 50,000 people attended the mid-week Chelsea-Bayern game. Just nine months earlier, at the same stadium, less than half that number turned up for a Friday night friendly between Singapore and rivals Malaysia.

Still, matters have improved to some extent. Clubs are now increasingly conscious of the need to leave a good impression.

The infamous Real Madrid tour of China in the previous decade, when the Galacticos looked indifferent and uninterested, or Barcelona’s upsetting of their South Korean hosts in 2010, are rarer.

And note how Bayern players carried a banner thanking their fans at the National Stadium after their 3-2 win over Chelsea.

Just do not be naive and expect anything beyond that, said Tiago.

The former Penang coach, who also played for Geylang International (then known as Geylang United) and Home United in the S.League, was in charge of the Indonesian national team in 2013 when the Netherlands visited around the same time as Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea.

“Nothing changed here after their visits,” he said. “These games may be good for business but not much more. The big teams are trying to build their support in this region.”

According to Marko Kraljevic, who has played in Malaysia and Singapore and is currently the coach of Balestier Khalsa, if there is any benefit to the local game, it is in these clubs and their players being the epitome of professionalism and determination.

The Croatian has been critical in the past of what he sees as a lack of desire of local players to better themselves. As such, he views the arrival of some of the best in the world as a useful example of what practice, discipline and determination can do.

“It is a chance to watch how the top European teams play, and not only for the players. Everybody involved in football can learn.”

Kraljevic does not regard these events as taking much-needed media and public attention away from the local league.

“The ICC lasts for only one week,” he said. “We have over 50 weeks for the S-League.”

Still, former Singapore international John Wilkinson is not a fan of such exhibition games.

“I see the crowds that go to such matches become like tourists in their own town,” said the former Woodlands Wellington and Warriors FC stalwart, who dreams of local football fans getting behind local clubs and turning up for S-League games, instead of getting behind visiting teams “who are fulfilling contractual obligations, and ultimately going through the motions”.

But European clubs are starting to realise that constant engagement is the best way to build relationships, with games just one part of an overall strategy. A number of top teams now have offices in the region.

Tiago believes that this is something, in turn, for the powers that run Singapore football to tap into.

“If the FAS (Football Association of Singapore) builds a cooperation with federations in England or Italy in order to improve the quality of their players and coaches, then there should be an improvement in future,” he said.

“That should happen regularly with coaches going to get certificates and attending seminars and courses.”

Meanwhile, one thing is clear: As long as 50,000 locals are willing to pay big money to see the big teams, the big teams will keep coming.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

TODAY Sports’ guest columnist John Duerden has been based in Asia for almost 20 years and covers the continental football scene for The New York Times, BBC Radio, The Guardian, FourFourTwo and World Soccer magazine

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