FC Barcelona planning to clone new China outpost

World's top-grossing sports club set to further leverage Rakuten partnership

20181102 FC Barca main.jpg

Eric Abidal, director of football for FC Barcelona, scrimmages with kids at the club’s new training academy in Haikou, China. (Courtesy FC Barcelona) 

ZACH COLEMAN, Nikkei Asian Review deputy editor

HONG KONG -- FC Barcelona, which recently became the world's first sports team to generate $1 billion in annual revenue, has plans to replicate its new chinese tourism and training center.

"This is our first step of a long journey," Didac Lee I-hsing, board director for digital initiatives, told the Nikkei Asian Review just before the grand opening of the Spanish soccer club's $8 million project last weekend.

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