C H I N A DA I LY
AS I A W E E K LY
B USI N E S S 21
November 18-24, 2016
Man Utd players get
a sleeping partner
Shanghai-listed sponsor signs deal to become English Premier League
club’s mattress and pillow supplier, prompting outflow of jokes on Twitter
By CHRIS PETERSON in London
[email protected]
As if being paid tens of thousands
of pounds a week were not enough,
players at Manchester United — one
of England’s leading premiership
teams, with a reputed 100 million
following in China — are now getting
a good night’s sleep too, thanks to
the club’s latest sponsor.
Shanghai-listed Mlily, a leading
mattress and pillow maker, signed
a five-year deal with the club to
become United’s first-ever official
mattress and pillow partner.
That triggered an immediate outflow of puerile jokes on Twitter. On
Weibo, the Twitter-like social media
platform, comments were even more
caustic.
“Manchester United players can
continue to daydream on the pitch,”
said one.
Club captain Wayne Rooney, cur-
rently struggling to maintain his
place in the club’s regular lineup, triggered this sarcastic post from another
Weibo user: “Rooney can only lead
the starting lineup under this circumstance by getting more sleep.”
Manchester United has form
when it comes to sleeping patterns
for its players.
Back in the club’s most successful period, when Sir Alex Ferguson
was in charge from 1986 to 2013,
he introduced sleeping pods at the
club’s training ground.
Ferguson also hired the services of
Nick Littlehales, a former executive
with the UK’s Slumberland mattress
manufacturer, who is now a recognized sleep coach, training sportsmen of all disciplines.
It is the sleeping pods at the club’s
training facility that Mlily will equip
with pillows and mattresses.
James Ni, founder of Mlily, told
the club’s website: “Our experience
has resulted in stress-free sleep and
healthier lives for customers. These
results are now available to Manchester United players, and will find
a wider audience due to our global
partnership.”
Manchester United made no
comment. Mlily’s deal, for which no
value was announced, is the latest in
a stream of Chinese investments in
European soccer.
In March this year, Dalian Wanda Group became the first Chinese
entity to become a full partner of
FIFA, soccer’s world governing body,
signing a deal which will see it have
sponsorship rights to the next four
World Cup competitions.
Alibaba E-Auto, the electric car
subsidiary of Alibaba Group Holding, signed a deal with FIFA last year
to become the exclusive presenting
partner of the FIFA Club World Cup
for the next eight years.
In January, Chinese electronics
MANCHESTER UNITED captain Wayne Rooney applauds the fans at the end
of a game on Aug 3. The English Premier League team has signed a sponsorship
deal with Shanghai-listed Mlily, a leading mattress and pillow maker. AFP
giant Hisense Group signed as a
global sponsor of UEFA EURO 2016,
the first-ever sponsorship deal with
a Chinese company in the championship’s 56-year history.
Hisense will also sponsor other
UEFA national team competitions
until the end of 2017, including the
European Qualifiers for the 2018
FIFA World Cup, UEFA Futsal EURO
2016, the 2017 UEFA European
Under-21 Championship and UEFA
Women’s EURO 2017.
In England, China Media Capital
took a stake in Manchester City in
October last year.
Other Chinese companies and
individuals have this year acquired
outright West Bromwich Albion,
Birmingham City, Aston Villa and
Wolverhampton Wanderers.
There have been reports that a
Chinese group is looking to buy Premiership title contenders Liverpool
FC, while in Italy AC Milan is in the
process of being sold by former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi
to a group of Chinese investors, and
rival club Inter Milan was acquired
by China’s Suning Group.