Marlboro to continue sponsorship of national football league series

Marlboro will continue sponsoring China's professional football league despite widespread opposition and a law banning tobacco advertising in sports stadiums, a vice-chairman of the National Sports Commission said yesterday.

Zhang Faqiang said the law allowed the use of a firm's name to sponsor the league and appear on billboards in stadiums as long as it did not promote smoking.

'We hope Marlboro can sponsor this year and next,' he said. 'We tell players not to smoke and publicise the bad effects of smoking in stadiums and gymnasiums. Our opinion is that the sponsorship of sport offsets the negative impact of their products on people's health.' Marlboro gives 10 million yuan (about HK$9.3 million) a year to the China Soccer Association and pays additional fees to TV stations and other parties.

It is an advertising bonanza - state television broadcasts a top game live each Sunday, seen by hundreds of millions of people, and the official media refer each time to the Marlboro league.

Mr Zhang was speaking at a two-day meeting on the commercialisation of sport, which has only a short history in China.

In 1995, Chinese sports organisations received just 53.7 million yuan in sponsorship, equal to one-third of the sports commission's budget. Now, football clubs receive 20 times more in sponsorship than they do from the state, with all 12 teams in the professional league, except the army, having a commercial sponsor.