BrazilAbeam Consulting becomes official partner of Man City in Japan
To help further boost its presence in Japan, English football champions Manchester City has signed a regional partnership with Tokyo-headquartered Abeam Consulting.
The Japanese management and technology advisory firm has become an official management consulting services partner of the famed English Premier League football club, with a focus on the Japan market. The two organisations will share insights across a number of areas to develop services and solutions to grow the club’s presence in the country.
“This new regional partnership provides Manchester City with an opportunity to build on our growing presence in Japan and we look forward to working together to share best practice and insight over the course of the partnership which will hopefully prove valuable to ABeam Consulting and their team,” said Stephan Cieplik, Senior Vice President of Global Partnerships Sales, City Football Group.
Football is seen to be big business in Asia, home to around 60 percent of the world’s population and soon enough half of the world’s GDP, with already an estimated one billion-plus fans. In Japan, the sport trails only baseball in terms of popularity. Yet, competition for fans among the big clubs is fierce, and City’s recent success came after the explosion of football in the late 90s and early 2000s.
Man United, Liverpool, Chelsea, Barcelona and Arsenal still dominate the fan-bases of the region, with the latter – according to Twitter activity at least – top dog in Japan. But the reigning EPL champions are now considered the UK’s third most valuable club, and the fifth globally, with revenues – prior to the massive interruption of Covid-19 – pushing above €600 million.
While the signing between the club and consultancy mightn’t generate the type of headlines of, say, Messi’s move to PSG, the potential of swaying a new generation of football fans could add untold millions to the Sky Blue’s bottom line. ABeam Consulting brings a sports sector offering which leverages data analytics and looks to connect stakeholders to boost both on-field and off-field performance.
“We trust that this partnership with Manchester City and ABeam Consulting, working for development in the sports industry, will be able to create new value by utilising digital technology,” said Abeam Consulting CEO Tatsuya Kamoi. “We will proceed creating innovative services for digital transformation, customer experience and joint-development for solutions on the enterprise side.”
Man City is owned by City Football Group, which in 2014 bought a stake in 2019 Japanese champions Yokohama F. Marinos. Other entities under the banner include the New York City franchise, and recently-crowned Australian league champions Melbourne City. The A-league has this year undergone a governance overhaul, with advisory R/GA brought in to help boost viewer engagement.
