Man United looks to Asia

MANCHESTER United, under fire from dismayed fans at home who object to the takeover by US tycoon Malcolm Glazer, is working hard to woo another group of supporters on the other side of the world.

Marketing director Peter Draper is preparing to intensify his push into Asian markets this month in a bid to find new fans and win over old ones.

United flies out on 21 July for a tour of Asia to play a series of friendlies in Hong Kong, Beijing and Tokyo.

Draper, speaking ahead of a conference in Melbourne, says that opportunities for sponsorship and merchandising are ripe in the region, particularly China.

'China is going to be very important to us,' he told the Australian Financial Review. 'It's very important to some of our partners, so it becomes important to us.'

Those partners include sponsors Nike, Vodafone, Schick, Fuji, Budweiser, Pepsi and Audi, who are keen to ride on United's coat-tails as it looks for more opportunities to reap the benefits of its brand with an estimated 70m supporters worldwide.

Draper has made five trips to China this year and plans to open a chain of 'Red' restaurants across the booming country.

Overseas fans are of increasing importance to Manchester United, with a third of its revenues coming from merchandising - the same contribution as from ticket sales.

Draper said United could reproduce the growth phenomenon the club has seen in Scandinavia since English league football matches were first beamed into Norway and Sweden in the late 1960s and 1970s.