ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the story of the marketing of professional soccer in China. It presents the narrative as a report, listing the names of many people involved, some of whom are likely still to be working in the advertising industry. The chapter also presents detailed descriptions of the campaigns: the strategies, the ad-placements, the public relations and the underlying themes which linked to football in order to popularize it. The athletes from the soccer league are the symbols of success of modern China. They participate in the sport on their own merits and are on perpetual display for the consuming world to see. In 1999, International Sports and Leisure (ISL), a Swiss-based sports marketing agent for FIFA signed a six year contract with the Chinese Football Association to market all China's national level soccer teams. Team China' was created to secure ISL's dominance of global soccer by marketing the largest soccer nation in the world.
