Indiantelevision.com Team

(21 February 2007 6:00 pm)

MUMBAI: In order to create further exctiteemnt about the Champions League trophy in Asia, Uefa has announced that the trophy will visit five Asian countries in the next six weeks as part of a tour. The aim is to to celebrate Europe’s premier club competition.

Uefa head of club competitions Michele Centenaro says, "By creating initiatives like the Uefa Champions League Trophy Tour, we are making the Uefa Champions League experience more accessible to local football fans and enabling them to share in the magic of Europe’s best club competition.

“It builds on the Uefa Champions Gallery and Uefa Young Champions tournament to bring fans across the world closer to the passion and excitement of our competition.”

In each country, the Uefa Champions League Trophy Tour will be launched with a press conference involving local footballers and celebrities. The trophy will then be the centre piece of a display in the city centre giving local fans the opportunity to find out more about the tournament and be pictured with the trophy.

Uefa’s marketing and media rights director Philippe Le Floc’h said, “Awareness levels for the UEFA Champions League in Europe have now reached record highs of 99 per cent. But although awareness for the tournament outside Europe is strong at 76 per cent our challenge is to grow the competition’s profile to the same level beyond Europe’s borders.”

According to recent research, interest in football is actually higher on average in Asia (62 per cent) than in any other continent, including Europe (55 per cent). The 2006/07 season has seen 72 nationalities represented in the UEFA Champions League.

“The UEFA Champions League has been a great experience so far and was one of the reasons I joined Celtic," explains Shunsuke Nakamura, Celtic FC’s Japanese star, who has helped them reach the last 16 of this season’s Uefa Champions League for the first time.