Spanish soccer sets goal of doubling Asian fan base

La Liga plans offices in Singapore, Tokyo to connect with football-mad region

TOKYO -- Spain's top professional soccer league aims to double its Asian viewership by 2020 with a series of media and internet partnerships to reach fans in the region, President Javier Tebas said.

La Liga President Javier Tebas

The chief of the Liga de Futbol Profesional, known popularly as La Liga, sat down with The Nikkei while in Tokyo for the FIFA Club World Cup finals. Real Madrid took the cup Sunday.

La Liga matches are broadcast in 225 nations and regions, reaching 600 million viewers -- with 200 million of them in Asia. The region is a particularly promising market with strong growth in viewership, Tebas said. The league seeks to lift the continent's fan base to 400 million by 2020, generating higher sales of broadcast rights and merchandise, he said.

Beginning this season, the start time for some matches has been moved to 1 p.m. Spain time, rather than the usual nighttime kickoff, to better fit the schedules of Asian soccer fans, Tebas said. The league also plans to increase its presence in the region. Headquarters for Southeast Asia will open in Singapore in January, and a Tokyo office is due in May.

These hubs will handle partnerships with TV stations as well as marketing efforts such as surveys of local viewers. La Liga also will work with operators of local social media sites to connect with fans, said Tebas, a lawyer-turned-coach who managed a small local club at the age of 29. Soccer instruction and match-viewing events are in the works as well.

In the spring, La Liga will send 40 young people chosen from a field of around 12,000 applicants to media outlets and advertising agencies in 40 countries, having them survey the local landscape and develop business plans tailored to each market.