The international strategy of the employers' association of professional football clubs, LaLiga, aims to “help develop the industry in each country” and not to “conquer” each territory, as explained by its director of the area in Southeast Asia and Australia, Iván Codina, in the 'Soccerex Connected' forum.
“It is important for us that we are not seen as a league that wants to conquer the world, but a league that aims to help develop the industry in each country. We also work to create communities in each country, and in the commercial sphere, “he explained during a session on the internationalization of Spanish football.
Codina reported that five years ago 85% of the income of the clubs came from the national market and only 15% came from the international markets, a situation that they tried to change with this strategy, based on sending international delegates through the 'LaLiga Global Network' program.
“Having delegates in various markets allows us to have information that we can use to our benefit to work on the local approach to each of them”, He added about this program, with which they have about twenty delegates in the main world capitals and allows them to “understand the local culture” and reach the fans of each place with “relevant content.”
The LaLiga executive shared a round table with one of Valencia's international development managers, Fabio Fusco, who explained that one of the objectives of the 'che' club is “to be perceived as a global club, a threat to other clubs with a bigger budget and to grow internationally”.
“For us, the LaLiga audience is the key to international success, we want to do what is in our power to improve knowledge of the competition and our values. We do not want to reach only large audiences but to connect with them and we believe that LaLiga's work is very important “, said.
Both executives explained that one of the great ways of collaboration between the employer's association and the Valencian club is working with international schools. “What we do with Valencia, for example, is work in the quarries, which is one of the keys to their activity in this part of the world (Asia), also in commercial opportunities, with the Communication department … We make sure that we can support any of the initiatives that they have, “said Codina.