Wanda International Football Tournament opens in Shanghai, Atletico Madrid beats Shanghai SIPG 3 to 0

Fernando Jose Torres Sanz

The 2015 Wanda International Football Tournament kicked off August 4 at the Shanghai Stadium, which can accommodate 80,000 spectators.

Spanish football club Atletico Madrid beat local team Shanghai SIPG in an overwhelming victory 3 to 0. More than 35,000 audiences watched the game. The football match between a powerful European team and a leading Chinese club not only sparked intense enthusiasm in the stadium, but also triggered a great amount of attention to Wanda Group regarding its ambitious plan to integrate sport marketing resources.

Atletico Madrid secured victories at all the three pre-season friendly matches. The team, with large swathes of frantic fans in China, was greeted by enthusiastic local fans as soon as they arrived at Shanghai. Fernando Jose Torres Sanz, the best-known football star in the team, was at the center of the limelight as numerous female fans were hustling each other only to take a glimpse of the handsome player.

Wanda Group now owns a 20% stake in the Atletico Madrid club. Led by the group’s cultural tourism unit, several other business units including commercial property and financial services joined hands to market their products and services by hosting the 2015 Wanda International Football Tournament.

This is the first time that a well-known European football club partially owned by Chinese entrepreneurs came to China for a contest. The match between a powerful European team and a leading Chinese club not only sparked intense enthusiasm in the stadium, but also triggered a great amount of attention to Wanda Group regarding its ambitious plan to integrate sport marketing resources.