One of the Spanish La Liga giants football club known as Valencia Club de Futbol has opened its first overseas office, and its Asian headquarters will be located in Singapore as the club announced days ago. The new office will be in Great World City and follows the appointment of Englishman Peter Draper as the new commercial and marketing director of Valencia. Other clubs that have offices in Singapore include German giants football club Borussia Dortmund and two English Premier League clubs such as Chelsea and Liverpool. Valencia Club de Futbol which is owned by Singaporean businessman Peter Lim, appointed another Singaporean Chan Lay Hoon as its executive president last month. The club finished fourth in the Spanish league last season and will enter the Uefa Champions League play-off round.
According to Mister Peter Draper when he asked by the local news, “The fans in Asia, especially Singapore, love football and with our owner being a Singaporean, common sense was to set up the office here. Last season was great for the club under the new Asian ownership, and it is fair to say we got a lot of attention from around the world so we want to build on that and expand further.” Mister Draper brings a wealth of experience to his new role, having been a senior leader at many top sports brands, including the group marketing director for Manchester United and European marketing director for Umbro Sportswear. He also confirmed that Valencia are looking to play a friendly match in Singapore sometime next year, as part of their pre-season preparations, but added that talks are still in progress. Nicknamed Los Che, Valencia Club de Futbol is one of the most successful clubs in Spain. They have won six league titles, seven Copa del Rey trophies, one Uefa Cup, one Cup Winners’ Cup, plus two Uefa Super Cups.
Valencia Club de Futbol has also reached two UEFA Champions League finals in a row, losing to La Liga rivals Real Madrid in 2000 and then to German club Bayern Munich on penalties after a 1–1 draw in 2001. Valencia were also members of the G-14 group of leading European football clubs. In total, Valencia have reached seven major European finals, winning four of them. The football club were founded in 1919 and have played their home games at the 55.000-seater Mestalla since 1923. They were due to move into the new 75.000-seater Nou Mestalla in the north-west of the city in 2013, but the final move date has been postponed while the stadium is still being built. Valencia have a long-standing rivalry with Levante UD, also located in the City of Valencia, and with two other clubs in the Valencian region, Hércules CF and CD Castellón. Valencia are the third most supported football club in Spain, behind heavyweights Real Madrid and FC Barcelona. It is also one of the biggest clubs in the world in terms of number of associates, with more than 50.000 season ticket holders and another 20.000 plus season ticket holders on the waiting list, who can be accommodated in the new 75.000-seater stadium.