Port Adelaide Football Club in China tie-up

The AFL club is breaking new ground with a deal to teach football lessons in China.

Port Adelaide Football Club has deepened its involvement in China and its role as an Australian sports pioneer, by signing a unique deal with the Jincheng Group, a conglomerate based in Zhejiang province with an annual turnover of $2.4 billion.

The new five-year partnership between Port Adelaide and Jincheng — whose primary sectors include real estate, health and education — will see them work together to deliver weekly football lessons and digital material to more than 6000 school students in China.

The program, Power Footy, has been developed by the club with a focus on unique aspects of Australian culture, extending also beyond sport. One of the attractions for Jincheng is that it will help prepare students seeking to go on to educational institutions in Australia, introducing them to life there.

Port Adelaide chief executive Keith Thomas, who is participating in the signing in Hangzhou, said: “This agreement with Jincheng is not a standard sport sponsorship, but it does reflect Port Adelaide’s desire to search for meaningful ways to maximise the club’s ability to encourage positive community outcomes.”

He said that since “international education is vitally important to the Australian economy,” helping international students successfully to transition into life in Australia will enable them to enjoy their study experience more.

In addition, he said, “We believe these students will become long term advocates for Port Adelaide and South Australia.”

International students coming to Australia sometimes feel “lonely and isolated,” he said. “Our China-based Power Footy program helps prepare them for their transition to Australia, and support them once they arrive.”

It is also an important element of the club’s aspiration to align its engagement with China with international education, he said, and to encourage those students to build “a lifelong relationship with Port Adelaide.”

Jincheng Group’s chairman Wu Wanglou said: “When I visited Australia in August, I was deeply impressed by Port Adelaide Football Club and imagined the potential of working with them to provide a unique opportunity for our students.”

He said that the idea of providing programs to prepare Jincheng’s students for life in an elite Australian university, and internships and job opportunities after graduation, is “a compelling proposition.”

John Williams, the executive dean of the faculty of professions at Adelaide University also attended the signing.