Brazilian football returns to China.

By Hélio Rocha, in China Radio International

The Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) and the Chinese sports streaming platform K-Ball, owned by the Chinese Sports Media group, formalized in September another important initiative for economic and cultural exchange between Brazil and China. The company will broadcast Brasileirão (the commercial name for the Brazilian Football Championship) matches three times a week, in an agreement signed until the end of 2023. With this, Brazilian matches return to the Chinese public after five years.

Given this, journalists from both countries and a sports marketing expert shared their opinions on the potential and challenges for the Brazilian Championship in the Chinese market, in this process of winning back the Eastern audience for the most important football league in South America.

According to journalist Bruno Guedes, from the EFE news agency, two points can be highlighted. “Brazilian football is becoming increasingly interesting to a global audience. The players are no longer just young players and veterans who have returned late from Europe, but relevant and well-known athletes with successful stints in the major leagues, such as Filipe Luís and Hulk. Furthermore, the country regularly participates in the Club World Cup, so its clubs are frequently presented to audiences worldwide.”

Following Guedes' line of thought, journalist Douglas Rocha points out that the international public trusts Brazilian football. “Beyond its hegemony within South American football, there's the curiosity to see new stars emerge. People abroad want to know who the next Neymar, the next Vinícius Jr. is. Adding to that the players returning, still at a high level, from European football, it becomes easy to sell a game like Flamengo versus Palmeiras, two teams that are in no way inferior to teams from the best leagues in the world.”

In recent history, Palmeiras and Flamengo played balanced matches against European powerhouses Chelsea and Liverpool in the Club World Cup finals. But Rocha warns: “The product still has room for improvement. The refereeing, the video assistant referee, the pitches, the calendar, are aspects that put the Brasileirão behind leagues like the Premier League in the United Kingdom; La Liga in Spain, and even Major League Soccer in the United States.”

"It is necessary to create marketing strategies," says researcher.

According to Professor Ary Rocco Jr., a researcher in sports marketing at the University of São Paulo, Brazilian football incorporates elements that go beyond the present. "It has the winning history of Brazilian football, which creates a mystique around the championship." However, he points to organizational difficulties in entering the Chinese market, where there is already competition from European leagues.

“Selling the broadcasting rights is a start. But to be effective, the CBF (Brazilian Football Confederation) and the clubs need to take more in-depth actions in the country in a structured way. The clubs need to dedicate themselves to Mandarin, as they already do with English, have websites and marketing staff in those languages. Furthermore, they should tour China for friendly matches and small tournaments and jointly maintain stores selling their products in the country. It's necessary to connect with the public, not just broadcast the game.”

Time zones can be a barrier.

For Chinese journalist Li Hailong, who covers Brazilian soccer for the Titan Sports newspaper, the biggest concern is the time difference. Brazil's games take place either during the early hours of the morning in China, or in the morning, on a workday. "On weekdays, people won't be able to watch the games. It's a challenge. The Chinese public loves Brazilian soccer, especially the Brazilian national team, and the broadcast on K-Ball will be a good start for people to get to know Brazilian soccer better," Li analyzes.

Among the potential to be explored, improvements to be made, and barriers to overcome, the overall assessment among communication professionals is positive. This is summarized by journalist Thiago Kern Copetti, who was a correspondent in Beijing for the Jornal do Commercio, covered the impact of the 2018 World Cup, and affirms that the Chinese people are very interested in football and, especially, in Brazil.

“Even though it’s not yet a major force in football, the Chinese pay attention to the World Cup and the world’s biggest games. And there are always references to Brazil when it comes to national teams. The challenge now is to bring Brazilian clubs to them, but the openness to Brazil is very great. Once I was among Chinese people who didn’t speak Portuguese, or any other language besides Mandarin, and they started saying ‘Ronaldinho’ when they found out where I was from. It’s a universal name for the Chinese when they see a Brazilian.”