European firm builds China market through football

Sinosoc.com reports that the Chinese Football Association has unveiled English IP telecom vendor iPhox as the China Super League's first title sponsor since Siemens Mobile withdrew its sponsorship before the 2005 season. IPhox has reportedly signed a five-year deal with the CFA, worth in the region of RMB80 million for the first season, with the investment to increase gradually over the following four years. "We are pleased with this collaboration. Iphox is a young Internet industry company and is confident it can take this chance to promote its IP phone service in China," CFA chief executive Xie Yalong said.

Update. The iPhox website currently carries the following disclaimer: iPhox Ltd would like to apologise to the CFA and to the people of China for languages and country problems with our software. We hope to have it fixed soon.