Liu Hongtao says his experience of being a tennis commentator gave him the idea of how the sports world runs. Xue Min / China Daily

"We needed to find people who spoke both English and their mother language, and who were extremely knowledgeable about football." It was much easier to find the right talent in Europe than in Asia, he says, and one of those he found was Liu Hongtao, 29, who became a coordinator in the Mandarin group in August.

Liu says he had been a tennis commentator, and "that experience gave me an idea of how the sports world runs". Although he was in charge of training commentators, he felt more like an administrator than a commentator, he says.

Through Zheng's effort, after several months, Liu has been leading a 10-member Mandarin commentary team made up mainly of freelance students.

He Yu, a student, says: "After being assigned a schedule, we normally prepare in our spare time during the week, before the commentary at the weekend."

Peter Vautier, a radio engineer who is working with Zheng's Mandarin team, says: "All the commentators are real football diehards and put unlimited passion into the project."

Zheng's teams will produce hundreds of programs in a season. "We had products in three languages last season, and this season it will be eight to 10."

Such an undertaking, almost impossible 10 years ago, is possible only because of improved technology, he says.

But the key to success is all the team's voices being available around the world simultaneously, he says.

"Once you have a quality product, you have secured the market."

In addition to the voices, that "quality product" is the audio copyright to the Premier League, one of the world's most popular sports tournaments.

The Premier League's official website says that more than 70 percent of the world's 2.1 billion football fans, in 212 countries, watch Premier League football, making it the most-watched league in the world. Three-year television rights for the league were sold to Sky TV and BT recently.

A recent survey by Manchester City, title winner in season 2011-12, indicated that more than 16 percent of its supporters come from China while only 3 percent are from Britain.

qiubo@chinadaily.com.cn

 

(China Daily European Weekly 10/18/2013 page14)