On Monday 15th October, The Melbourne Football Club will embark on a new chapter in Australia-China relations, when a party of 26 including nine of it's younger players travel to Beijing.
The 10-day mission is the beginning of a new phase between the Melbourne Football Club, Melbourne the city, and China, opening an opportunity that will derive considerable and sustainable long-term benefits.
The Itinerary begins with an Ambassadorial reception in Beijing and includes cultural visits, football clinics, business matching forums, official receptions, cultural exchanges, and personal development challenges across cities – Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, and Suzhou.
Joining the nine players, will be five club staff, a City of Melbourne Executive, club icon Ron Barassi, leading sports consultant and former AFL and Test cricketer Max Walker, and a group of corporates with Chinese interests.
MELBOURNEfc's coach, Dean Bailey, and Football Manager Chris Connolly, will see their time in China as a tangible way of demonstrating to players that the definition of ambition is to keep wanting to improve as a person as much as an athlete, and then improve again, and that the club is serious about investing in that.
The trip has had the encouragement and support of experienced Australia-China hands, including AustraliaPost, Qantas, Australian
Trade Commission, City of Melbourne, AFL, State Government,
Australia China Business Council, Confucius Institute, AustCham and AusTrade. They see sporting culture as a missing link in the diplomatic and economic leveraging of Australia-China relations.
MELBOURNEfc CEO Steve Harris said today, "China has demonstrated that it sees popular culture to be a key lever for its people to be proud, productive and prosperous. It is investing enormously into public culture via the 2008 Olympics, 2010 Expo, 2011 Asia Games, its voracious appetite for NBA, European soccer and luxury goods. It wants its people to be well-educated and healthy.
"The fact that so much of today's Melbourne finds it impossible to imagine life without today's cultural diversity and global connectedness, reinforces that culture will drive economics, and no less so with China.
"As a club called Melbourne, we need to embrace our own city and heritage, and the Chinese are an important part of our history and an important part of our relationship for the future.
"Our club has had over 4000 Chinese University students at a game earlier this year and we gain regular media coverage in Chinese newspapers.
"Along with the business benefits derived from this project, there will be a mix of other outcomes; including all players being put through a personal development program, visiting areas of China including the Great Wall and Olympic sites in Beijing, travelling to Tianjin - Melbourne's sister city and meeting the Mayor of Tianjin, visiting Shanghai and Suzhou, AFL international game development, and hand-picking two teenagers for training scholarships in Melbourne.
Harris added, "We have the opportunity to teach more locals the game and be involved in development opportunities. We'll give the opportunity to two young Chinese footballers to come to Australia for training and development, and we'll take the game to 10 junior schools, 10 middle schools, and universities in Tianjin as part of their education system.
"There is currently an AFL youth ambassador in Tianjin, Australian football has been endorsed nationally as an approved physical exercise in Chinese schools, and there are young and middle aged children, and university students already playing the game," said Harris
While a demonstration and then competitive match is still for future years, China is expected to participate in the AFL International Cup for the first time in 2008.
The group of 25 will depart Sydney at 10am tomorrow morning before landing in Beijing at 8pm Monday night.
