Qatar Airways has been named the official title sponsor of the FC Barcelona Asia Tour 2013. Barcelona will take on Thailand’s national football team in Bangkok on August 7 and an all-star team of the Malaysian league’s best players in Kuala Lumpur on August 10.
With this, the club will make its first ever appearance in Malaysia and return to Thailand for the first time since 2002. The matches will be held at Bangkok’s Rajamangala National Stadium and Kuala Lumpur’s Bukit Jalil National Stadium.
To help bring Qatar Airways’ 1.2mn Facebook fans closer to the ‘Blaugrana’, the airline has launched a contest giving fans the chance to win a trip to watch the world’s best footballers in action. Facebook fans can sign up for a chance to win a range of prizes - from signed T-shirts and VIP tickets to one of the games to an invitation to meet two players during a private autograph session.
The contest runs until July 31. Fans can find more information on the Qatar Airways Facebook page at www.facebook.com/qatarairways.
“Both Qatar Airways and FC Barcelona have a large and loyal fan base in Southeast Asia. We are pleased to work with Barcelona to take the tour to a region with the most Barça fans in the world,” said Qatar Airways CEO Akbar al-Baker. “The matches will be a pure adrenaline rush for every fan who has dreamt of watching FCB in action. This is just a taste of what is to come as we move forward over the next three years with our partnership with FC Barcelona.”
“We are pleased that the club is returning to Asia this summer with Qatar Airways, our travelling companion from July 1,” said Sandro Rosell, president of FC Barcelona. “We thank Qatar Airways for the chance to visit fans (in Thailand and Malaysia) who have dreamt to see our players live for long.”
