Spain’s Kelme Ramps Up Asian Football Interest With Latest Move

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has announced a partnership with sportswear brand Kelme for the 2021 to 2024 rights cycle. 

Kelme joins the AFC family of sponsors as the Official Global Supporter of AFC national team competitions and will provide sports apparel and accessories for the AFC’s national team competitions from 2022 to 2024, and the official match ball for the AFC Asian Cup China 2023. 

The tenure of the partnership includes major AFC competitions such as the AFC Asian Qualifiers– Road to Qatar and the continent’s flagship national team competitions:  the AFC Asian Cup China 2023, the AFC Women’s Asian Cup India 2022 and the AFC U23 Asian Cup Uzbekistan 2022.

Spanish sportswear brand Kelme is not the dominant brand in the Asian football sponsorship industry, and has been overshadowed by major brands Adidas and Nike, however, it has been rather left-field in its approach, backing China’s Women’s Super League football tournament.

Mr. Ke Yongxiang, President of Kelme remarked: “We are very pleased to partner with the AFC, who we will collaborate with closely to promote football development in Asia and the rest of the world. For decades, football has been at the core of our brand and we are dedicated to continue challenging ourselves to drive innovation and to supply high-quality equipment to the sport industry. We are hence looking forward to collaborating with the AFC on the upcoming national team competitions including the AFC Asian Qualifiers – Road to Qatar and the AFC Asian Cup China 2023.”

This partnership deal was brokered by the AFC’s exclusive commercial partner Football Marketing Asia (FMA). It will also include rights to a comprehensive set of tailored digital promotional content and innovative advertising formats for Kelme.