‘Unfathomable in United Kingdom’: China Premier League chief on evolving fandom

Having been in the Beijing office for almost two years, Jay Li is observing some interesting behaviour among Chinese supporters

Nearly two years into his role as the Premier League chief in China, Jay Li admitted it has been an eye-opening experience seeing how Chinese fans follow the world’s most-watched football league compared to those in the United Kingdom.

Since the opening of the Premier League’s Beijing office in October 2024, Li, managing director of Premier League China, told the South China Morning Post that his team has discovered something “unfathomable” after operating in the country among the fans.

“I’ve observed something very interesting: we see a lot of league-first fans in China and international markets, rather than club-specific fans,” Li said.

“This is an evolving fandom. Many Chinese fans here can support Arsenal and Manchester City at the same time.

“It is unfathomable in the United Kingdom because you grew up very differently. The heritage is very different, whereas we are seeing many league-first fans here in China, and that is really encouraging for us because we view that as a wider appeal here in China.”

Li added that the unique brand of football fans tends to be found outside the UK because of the different ways they follow football.