Chinese firms biggest sponsors of 2022 World Cup

Hisense's logo. (Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn)

Chinese enterprises spent most in sponsoring the 2022 Qatar World Cup, according to GlobalData, a data analytics and consulting company based in London, the Jiangxi Business News reported on Monday.

The total sponsorship amount of Chinese enterprises reached $1.4 billion, followed by that of the US companies at $1.1 billion.

Wanda has become one of the seven official partners of the Federation Internationale de Football Association. Vivo, Mengniu and Hisense are also sponsors of FIFA World Cup.

In terms of soccer teams, Argentina, the champion of the 2022 World Cup, has been favored by many Chinese enterprises. The team and its players are all targets of sponsorship. Yili, Panpan Food, Cotti Coffee, Macro, NetEase, GMMC, Wanda Sports and Lingxi Games are all sponsors or partners of them, Southern Metropolis Daily reported.

Argentine Football Association said Chinese enterprises accounted for 10-15 percent of the total global sponsors that signed a deal with them as of November.

Although soccer powers are mainly concentrated in Europe and the Americas, nearly half of the fans are in Asia. Data from FIFA showed that during the 2018 World Cup, the audience population in Asia reached 1.6 billion, or 43 percent of the global total. Three of the top five nations by audience rating are in Asia: China, India and Indonesia.