La Liga president Javier Tebas has underlined the importance of China for the future of top-flight football and revenues within Spain.
The league chief said that the nation was on an equal footing of importance alongside the United States for La Liga when speaking about revenue streams of foreign fans.
In March, Marca cited that TV figures in the Far East – which peaked at 40 million – dwarfed that within Spain (177k), for Espanyol’s victory over Real Valladolid which featured the Catalan club’s striker Wu Lei.
The same month, La Liga confirmed that they had agreed a collaboration with the Chinese Super League with the aim of helping football grow in Asian nation.
“For us, in economic terms, China with the US, after Spain, is the most important market,” Tebas – who was attending the opening of the first La Liga academy in China – explained, in quotes cited by Marca.
“We must be very attentive to what happens and work because we cannot overlook 1.2 billion inhabitants, when the Chinese president is pushing for football.
“In 2013 China only accounted for €4m for our revenues, but now they account for €100m.
“I think it's an amazing country with an impressive projection. We work to have many more fans in China, we can't forget about them. We would be very clumsy if we do not understand that China is a fundamental part of the football industry.
“We say it in all countries: we want to be the second after local football.”
