A few weeks ago, before I went on holiday, I wrote about how Celtic should look to expand into further international markets to enhance their financial muscle and worldwide presence. I was delighted to read then that not only are we looking to undertake a pre-season tour of Japan next summer but that SportTVNow, Japan’s premier football streamer will stream live all 38 of Celtic’s SPFL fixtures live throughout Japan.
This is great news for the club and will allow us to continue to extend the Celtic brand throughout East Asia.
Football fans in South Korea and China are already familiar with Celtic after we signed players from their country, but what we have with the quality of players and football under Ange Postecoglou is an opportunity to brand ourselves as one of the top teams to follow for all Asian and Australasia countries.
Japan is obviously a good starting point for the club having 4 players from there all at Japanese international level, however player acquisition should not be the only avenue for us.
Manchester United have long been the top club in Thailand without ever having to sign a Thai player. Instead, we need to find ways to enter these markets, be that TV deals, pre-season tours or even initially piggy backing off clubs with bigger reputations in these markets by being available for glamour friendlies during pre-season. Celtic are a massive club and deserve to be thought of as such the world over.
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