First 'China Cup' Press Conference Held in Beijing
07.12.2016
The press conference of 2017 GREE China Cup International Soccer Championship
Wanda Group Chairman Wang Jianlin addresses the press conference
Wanda and GREE sign cooperation agreementOn December 7, the press conference of the 2017 GREE China Cup International Football Championship was held in Beijing and officially released the emblem, trophy, title sponsor, teams, ticketing and other related information of the China Cup.
Chairman Wang Jianlin of Dalian Wanda Group, President Cai Zhenhua of the Chinese Football Association, Vice-Chairman Huang Weijing of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Vice President Wang Jingdong of the title sponsor GREE and other guests attended the conference.
The 2017 GREE China Cup International Football Tournament is co-hosted by the Chinese Football Association, the Sports Bureau of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Nanning Municipal Government and Dalian Wanda Group. The event will kick off on January 10, 2017 in Nanning Guangxi Sports Center. Early in the planning stage of the China Cup, the Chinese Football Association and the Dalian Wanda Group had determined its basic principle of “Participation of World Top Teams in High-level Games”. Being the first-ever FIFA top class matches named “China Cup”, it is the most competitive championship for Teach China. Wanda has signed a 10-year contract with the Chinese Football Association, showing its determination to build the highest-level international football games.
“It is a long-cherished wish of Dalian Wanda Group and the Chinese Football Association to hold China Cup and we hope that it will provide a new opportunity for the development of China’s football and sports industry. Wanda is willing to work with all the parties to make a contribution to the rise of Chinese football,” said Chairman Wang Jianlin of Dalian Wanda Group during the speech at the conference.
Zhang Jian, the full time vice president and secretary-general of the Chinese Football Association, said, “China Cup allows Coach Lippi to fully adjust and test the national team. It is also the best chance to make preparation for the next Asia qualifiers in March 2017. Under the leadership of Lippi, Team China will go all out to prepare for the China Cup.
According to Huang Weijing, deputy chairman of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, “full support will be offered from the government and the Sports Bureau at both district and city level of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region”, and it is hoped that the China Cup in Nanning will open a door to the development of Guangxi football.
Sebastian Moreno, general secretary of the Chilean FA, Gail Sostin, the president of Football Association of Iceland, and Ante Cacic, the manager of Croatian men’s national team, also sent their blessings to the China Cup via remote video.
As an important partner of the event, Vice President Wang Jingdong of GREE signed a contract with Wanda on behalf of GREE Electric and became the title sponsor of China Cup. Apart from the title sponsor of GREE Electric, Dalian Wanda Group will also integrate Wanda Cinema, Wanda Hotel, Wanda Plaza, Wanda Mao, Feifan E-Business, Wanda Wealth and other companies to help promote and serve this championship together.
The current three away teams at this China Cup have strong power: the Chilean team ranks fourth in the FIFA ranking and is the champion of the last two America Cup, and it fully deserves to be the top team of South American; the Croatian team ranks 14th in the FIFA ranking with exceptional famous players in the line-up; the rank of the Icelandic team advanced to the 21st in the FIFA ranking due to its stunning performance in this year's European Cup. It is the first time for China to witness the presence of three Top 25 international teams to compete with the Chinese national team.
Li Tie, coach assistant and leader of the Chinese men’s national team, expressed his expectation of the coming China Cup on behalf of the team. He said that the team was actively preparing for the next year’s Asia qualifiers and they were grateful that China Cup offered such a good platform for exercise and an opportunity to compete with world-class teams and learn from them. The Chilean team leader expressed his eagerness to come to compete in the game and hope to show Chinese fans a different charm of football.
The schedule of this championship was officially announced in the conference by Deputy Director Xie Qiang of the Sports Bureau of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Deputy Mayor Zhang Wei of Nanning City as representatives of the host city. The four teams will be divided into two groups and the battle will officially kick off on January 10. Among them, China will play Island in Group A, while Croatia will run head-to-head with Chile in Group B. The losers will compete for the third place and the winner will fight for the champion on January 15.
It is reported that the organizing committee has made a low-fare-based ticketing program in an effort to satisfy the general public’s wishes of watching China Cup to the largest extent. At present, it has established a ticketing sales hotline platform and launched the implementation of ticketing publicity and marketing. The four games of this China Cup provide a total of 120,000 available tickets and the fare is divided into four classes ranging from 80 to 380 yuan, of which the lowest ticket price accounts for 10% of the total available tickets.