China’s businesses get top billing at World Cup after team flops

China may not be sending a side to Qatar, but Chinese businesses will have top billing as sponsors at the 2022 World Cup, Qazet.az reports.

Chinese brands are the biggest sponsors of the tournament — even outspending the slate of American companies that includes iconic names such as Coca-Cola, McDonald’s and Budweiser.

China’s sponsors have ponied up $1.395bn for the competition, which runs November 20-December 18, surpassing the $1.1bn spent by US companies, according to GlobalData, a London-based data analytics and consulting company.

Broken down on an annual basis, Chinese sponsorship is valued at $207m per year, compared with Qatari and US deals worth $134m and $129m, respectively, according to the data.

China’s corporate dominance at the competition reflects the aspirations of its brands to expand their recognition overseas to a level that matches their growing size and reach.

The rise of Chinese sponsors also parallels President Xi Jinping’s dream of turning China, which made its sole World Cup appearance in 2002, into a football powerhouse through ambitious plans and targets, such as increasing the number of schools with football pitches 10-fold by 2025.

While the four Chinese sponsors of the 2022 tournament — Wanda Group, Vivo, Mengniu Dairy and Hisense — have relatively low profiles outside their home country, they are huge enterprises with multibillion-dollar revenues and thousands of employees.