Wanda and Big Sport - A New Era for Asia

Pic: wsj.com

Welcome back and happy New Year to all our readers!

We aim this year to be a huge one for The Kick Project. As part of our stepping up, we will be filling the blog with more great content - both original and curated - over the coming months. Our topic line is the world of football and how it impacts in areas of peace, reconciliation, community development and social justice.

It's a big topic and there's plenty happening. And plenty to be said.

So please follow this blog, subscribe and interact. Your support is valuable.

We start the year with this piece our founder, James, has written for the ANZ Bluenotes news site. Bluenotes is a dedicated news site run by one of Australia's biggest banks, ANZ.

The article is on the movements of one of Asia's biggest property developers, Wanda Group, into the sports industry.

The implications of this for us here at The Kick Project are that a) Asia is becoming a focal point in the business of major sport promotion and that ever larger sums of money are being found to support major sports - especially football - in Asia and globally and b) We are keen to ensure these funds, while making the games we love better and more professional, are also channeled into supporting grassroots and community-based football in the region and elsewhere.

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