Asian obsession

[Why Always Ste]

Sorry not a porn thread ;)

Why does it seem many Asians are so obsessed with the Premier League?

I mean, why are they obsessed with it?

I'm going back about 7yrs now but I spent 3mths in Thailand and never really saw any obsession with Football, only stall traders selling knock off shirts.

It wasn't like everywhere people where watching matches and so on. This is the impression the British media tend to give of Asian countries. May be it's different in Malaysia etc?

Watching the latest Inside City - <a class="postlink" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utpFVhZUJng" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utpFVhZUJng</a>

The way in which the Big Cola prize winners behave is crazy.

Would I travel say 10,000 miles just to hit an hockey puck against an NHL Goalie?
No lol...

 

[mad4city]

Why not?
It's glamorous. It's exciting and it's (wait for it!).....

















LIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[ali benarbia's studs]

the english game is fast and full of stars, why not?


it s the one of oldest leagues! history plays a part?

 

[Franny Lee's Barrel Chest]

the english game is fast and full of stars, why not?


it s the one of oldest leagues! history plays a part?

It's a very interesting question and I can only imagine the reason is that it's marketed at them and is a damn site better than anything they have over there. The population is through the roof and any team getting into that market to sell merchandise stands to make a lot of money.

But they're not the only ones to embrace foreign sports. Look at us over here, you often see Milan or Barcelona or Real Madrid shirts and Sky wouldn't show La Liga if it wasn't popular either.

Baseball, (Ice) Hockey, Basketball and (American) Football are also shown over here although I don't think they're as popular because we have our own sports that we have grown up with. Michael Jordan and Denis Rodman, for example, are massive sporting icons but they don't have the god like status over here because we have plenty of our own.

So I think it's a combination of poor quality over there coupled with aggressive marketing by savvy teams over here. We've a lot of catching up to do I fear. Getting into China is the trick now. Let hope Sun Jihai can do the business for us.

 

[Dubai Blue]

The time difference plays a part in it. For example, La Liga and Serie A games are on far too late over there for anyone to have a major interest in it.

 

[Deleted member 41424]

somebody could have at least posted a pic of Kagawas bird. I currently have only hatred for this thread!

 

[Josh Blue]

Just watched that, they were bonkers.

 

[jma]

It's cultural.

'Celebrity' culture in the sub continent is in a similar, but not identical to the way that celebrity culture was here, say 60 years ago. With famous 'stars' and glamour seen as much more important than they really are.

Look at cricketers in India. They are mobbed like demi-Gods. But they are just ordinary people with an exceptional skill, even though the culture doesn't treat them as such.

I don't think that such cultures are more fanatical or bigger supporters of sport than in, let's say, more cynical cultures, like Western Europe. They are however, as a whole, more susceptible to being inordinately impressed by fame, celebrity, star power and glamour. Or maybe just impressed in a different way. Which is why you see such silly reactions about things like football teams that they have no connection to at all, on the other side of the world.

Mind you, in another 50 years such countries have got to look forwards to half of their celebrities being clowns and half of their population being obsessed by shite like X Factor. Both sorts, theirs and ours, of 'celebrity culture' are absolutely ridiculous and embarrassing.

 

[AntiUnited]

been living in dubai for like 9 years now. Nothing on tv is better then football and the local leagues are beyond shit. Alot of people over here actually perfer watching la lega. But the games start at 12 in the morning which is to late . and the prem games start around 4 pm.

 

[peoffrey]

Thai or Chinese people in particular I've met are big fans of football over here. Cardiff City's decision to re-brand to red shirts (poor bastards) was largely influenced by an ability to tap in to the Asian markets as red is considered a lucky colour over there. Hence the U****d and Liverpool obsession no doubt.