When East meets West

THE Kerry Centre, Manchester United’s five star hotel in Beijing, Monday afternoon.

Alex Ferguson, the United manager, is refusing to speak to the travelling British media because of a story about a training ground altercation between him and his captain, Roy Keane.

The story will blow over. It's more a positive charged reaction between two completely driven and focussed individuals, but such is Manchester United's standing that it still made back page headlines.

Ferguson is sulking and so are the travelling press, whose newspapers have paid £3,400 for them to cover United's tour of the Far East. But Ferguson has to talk. Contractual obligations with United's blue chip Chinese sponsors mean he has to face all the accredited media and that includes those he currently loathes.

Ferguson is agitated. None of the British journalists even bother asking him a question because they know he will glare and kill it with a one word answer.

A brave Chinese journalist who is likely to be cut more slack, asks Ferguson if Keane has been left behind in Manchester for disciplinary reasons.

"Roy Keane is injured, it is as simple as that," says Ferguson tersely. "You can't travel if you are injured. There is nothing else to say."

The next question, again from a local journalist, is bizarre. "We see the green colours of the Beijing team as the leaves and the red of Manchester United as the flowers. Do you think the leaves will outshine the flowers?"

Alex can scarcely believe what he's just heard and doesn't answer. That's nothing. When United visited Singapore in 2001, one journalist said: "Mr Ferguson. Is it true that you play your good looking players before the uglier ones?"

Coming as that one did after a question as to the whereabouts of Posh Spice; the United manager remained surprisingly calm. Neither question elicited a reply, but then nor did they provoke the kind of reaction expected of Ferguson had he been asked the question in the press room of, say, Anfield.

Welcome to the world of an Asian Manchester United pre-season tour, where cultures collide and cash is counted. United are playing four friendly games in eight days in Hong Kong, Beijing, Tokyo and Saitama to, as one director puts it, "connect" with their many legions of Far East supporters.

It's the fifth time in a decade that United have ventured east, and whilst they recognise the importance of performing live in the new markets they court, the suffocating fan hysteria makes these tours unpopular with the players.

Privately too, Alex Ferguson will be concerned about the physical condition of his players after extensive flights and debilitating games in soaring temperatures. Playing against the likes of a Hong Kong XI is hardly the sternest of tests either.

United's willingness to tour is almost marketed as ambassadorial, but it's about establishing a profile in burgeoning markets and lusting after sponsorship money.

That's why United restrict those games to the wealthier Asian nations and not countries like Vietnam, where a typical member of the Vietnamese Red Army cannot afford a €60 replica shirt given he barely earns that in a month.

Besides, why would such a fan buy an official shirt when they can pick up a convincing replica (of a replica) for €6?

It's different in the wealthy economies of Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong. And it could be very different in China, with its burgeoning middle class and huge, double digit growth economy.

United have made money in these countries; they even opened a Megastore in Singapore in 2001 and were world leaders in promoting themselves far away from their home well before the Glazer family started buying shares.

Even Real Madrid, United's closest commercial rivals, took their nod from Manchester as well as Beckham, the most famous footballer in the world.

Yet whilst CNN analysts talk up the millions of United's eastern converts as much as they patronise them, their direct financial value has so far been limited, accounting for less than 1% of the club's turnover. That's where Malcolm Glazer sees real potential.

Malcolm wasn't in Beijing on Tuesday night, but son Bryan, one of the three Glazer offspring listed as non executive directors on the United board, was. And he won't have liked what he saw. Beijing's 70,000 capacity Workers' Stadium was just over a third full.

When United last played in China in 1999, 78,000 paid to see them in Shanghai. That's a big drop. And it's not like there's a shortage of people in China either. As further evidence that their star is dimming in Asia, last Saturday's visit to Hong Kong attracted 8,000 fewer than when United last visited.

There are mitigating factors. Over 50,000 watched Real Madrid beat Beijing 3-2 in the same stadium on Saturday, but their visit received negative publicity as they fielded a weakened side without David Beckham.

They were also portrayed as being interested only in money for their refusal to come into contact with fans, their time neatly allocated to high paying sponsors.

A series of critical editorials in the Beijing media suggested that local fans of European football were becoming more discerning about watching teams live for pre-season games, but with ticket prices costing as little as £7 and widely available before the game, United officials were disappointed at the lack of fans.

'Fan' is short for fanatic. It has become such a generic term that it is misused. And the fact is that the Asian United fans are of a very different breed to the 'fanatic' United fans in Europe.

United are still the most popular football team in Asia, but it is trophies which attract converts in the region and allegiances can switch more frequently than Beckham's torso appears on advertising boards in Japan.

Many of these fans don't buy the 'through thick and thin' concept like in Europe. They don't relate to lifelong loyalty, instead they follow the most successful team or the most popular players as sales of Real Madrid shirts with 'Beckham 23' on the back testify.

Such is Beckham's popularity; Real Madrid's revenue is likely to surpass United's for the first time next season.

Clubs like United or Real have two options to appeal to Asia's notoriously fickle fans. They either have the most famous players in the world, the absolute top level, or they win trophies playing great football. United's popularity has been built with both they had Beckham and they won trophies.

Now, after two trophyless seasons and with Beckham in Madrid, United's Asian star is dimming. It's not just United's hardcore who want to see them start winning again.