Advertisers spend millions to capture football frenzy in the Middle Kingdom
"Roll on 2018!" Image: FIFA |
Despite only making it to the finals once (2002) in the 84-year history of the soccer event, China has again been gripped by the month-long FIFA World Cup, currently being hosted in Brazil.
Chinese fans are taking time off or staying up late to watch the games, which are mostly being played in the small hours of the night.
Beijing store clerk and staunch Brazil supporter Wu Bin is forsaking family travel to invert his day-night sleeping patterns and follow the world cup when it enters into the knockout stage. Giant Interactive Group Inc, a Shanghai-based games developer, is also moving regular working shifts by four hours to accommodate the games.
And advertisers are equally keen to capture the enthusiasm. Tmall has spent 141.6m yuan ($22.7m) sponsoring the scorer rankings, while Nike is paying 46m yuan ($7.4m) to name a program hosted during the event.
The death of the uncannily accurate Paul the Octopus has led to a number of new animal oracles, with superstitious enthusiasts looking to China's pandas to predict the outcome of the games. However, staff at the China Conservation and Research Centre for Giant Pandas said they would not allow a litter of panda cubs to weigh in on the outcome of the games for "health and safety" reasons.
China has long held a contentious claim it invented football in the form of "Cuju", which involved keeping a leather ball off the ground until it could be kicked through a hole above head height. The claim was supported by much-criticised FIFA head, Sepp Blatter, who was recently photographed holding up a blue certificate supporting the claim in the Chinese city of Zibo.