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by Xu Haijing
CANBERRA, June 25 (Xinhua) -- It's called football. But it's not what Chinese people think it is. To avoid confusion, the sport, Australian Football, is translated directly into Chinese as "Australia-style oval ball".
Australian football is the No.1 sport in Australia given the record-breaking expensive broadcast contracts the national league, Australian Football League (AFL) had signed with major TV networks in Australia. Now, one of the AFL clubs, Port Adelaide, is confident that Chinese audiences will like their sport.
According Andrew Hunter, the club's China and Government Relations general manager, Port Adelaide club has begun to cultivate the Chinese market for a few years.
"We know (Australian) football doesn't have a history in China. We don't think there is anything mysterious about our sport. It's a fast, exciting sport. We believe it's a great sport for spectators with high scoring. There are extraordinary players playing Australian Football. So there is no reason why it wouldn't be popular in China," Hunter said.
The promotion of Australian Football began three years ago thanks to one person. Chen Shaoliang, dubbed the first Chinese playing Australian Football, has been playing an important role in this.
Selected by AFL to experience the sport in Australia three years ago, Chen, then a sports university student, began to practice the game when he was back to Guangzhou and then joined a local club.
"I mainly played with university students. They are young and open-minded to novelty. They kind of like the experience of body contact in the game. They have more time and would like to try something new," Chen said.
Promotion among much younger kids also went smoothly. Chen was surprised to find that some Chinese parents would like their kids to have more body contact in the game despite AFL adapted rules for kids to reduce body contact and encourage speed and movement.
"As for the education system, there is a growing awareness that they are looking for more active young people and active population. We can offer football as an enjoyable sport, a fast and exciting sport. It can be another option for young people," said Hunter.
Hunter said his club regards three pillars as the key factors to promote Australian Football in China.
First is the broadcasting pillar. "We had a great opportunity to work with CCTV on that," Hunter said.
The Chinese Central Television has agreed to broadcast weekly AFL matches involving Port Adelaide club and a documentary about the club as well as the life of Chen in Adelaide, who is now a Port Adelaide Club player.
"We also understand the social media is very different in China so we had a social media company. We now have a WeChat and Weibo account so we'd give people the opportunity to be able to access our club, our sport," Hunter said.
The third pillar is playing a match in China.
"This year announced by our Prime Miniter (Malcolm Turnbull) on 14 April in Shanghai there will be a match in Shanghai for the first time, a formal AFL game with Port Adelaide participating," he said.
"These three pillars put together will help us bring audience."
The investment of Port Adelaide in its China strategy paid off this year when Shanghai Cred Real Estate owner Gui Guojie decided to sponsor the club.
"We think a Chinese company which is looking to Australia and has business interest in Australia can use our sports to get a closer link to our community and to really grow a community support for what they are doing," said Hunter.
"We think there is commercial opportunities down the track particularly for the Chinese companies want to come back to Australia. We had some initial success and we believe there is potential to have more."
Data shows that almost 4 million people in China watched the April 23 match between Port Adelaide and the Geelong Cats through CCTV broadcast, far exceeding the number of viewers within Australia of 850,000.
Port Adelaide is also ambitious to explore opportunities in China to promote their expertise in sports science.
"The sport industry in China is growing rapidly. We think there is a growing potential. There is something we do that ain't just football. We have an expertise in sports science. Australia is a leader in that. We believe there is an opportunity to export that service to China," said Hunter.
Hunter added there are many different goals in introducing Australian Football to China.
"The first thing at basic level is we believe playing our sport in China is a form of cultural exchange. We believe with more Chinese people becoming aware of football, then we have a window to Australian culture, they understand our culture better," he said.
"Our engagement with China is growing awareness of China and Chinese culture for Australians. I think it is a great vehicle for that. I think it is a wonderful thing to grow that intercultural understanding."
