The German cleaning equipment brand Kärcher recently sponsored a Chinese regional youth football tournament, the “Ants Youth Football Championship”, in Wuxi city, Jiangsu Province. The title sponsorship deal involved the changing of the tournament title to the “German Kärcher Cup Ants Youth Football Championship”. This is the first time the brand has sponsored the event.

The tournament kicked off on May 19th in Wuxi city’s Liangxi Distric with Chinese football legend Hao Haidong appearing at the kick-off ceremony as a special guest. 

Eight youth football teams from the Jiangsu-Zhejiang-Shanghai area competed in the tournament, including Shanghai Luckstar FC, Barcelona Lama Football Academy, and Wuxi Ants Football Club. 

The tournament is organized by Wuxi Ants Sports Exhibition Co., Ltd.(无锡蚂蚁体育展有限公司) a local company in Wuxi. The first Ants football tournament was organized in 2016 according to online information and previoulsy targeted university level players. The company now focuses on younger age group training, working with 15 schools in and around the Liangxi District to deliver campus football training. 

Kärcher recently signed up as an official sponsor of the AFC Champions League and the AFC Cup for three years in February 2018. Christian May, Managing Director Retail Channels of the Kärcher Group said in regard to their partnership with AFC that “We believe in a promising future of Asian football”. Kärcher’s previous activities in football also include sponsorship of SC Freiburg and VfB Stuttgart in the Bundesliga. 

They operate a Chinese language website in China. 

Source: Liangxi government website, PR Newswire

Proofread by Raymond Fitzpatrick