Mission Beijing has started

Apart from the tricky theme about who will sit on Lazio’s bench next season, Lazio is already looking ahead to the Far East. Last Friday team manager Maurizio Manzini and Marketing manager Marco Canigiani, flew to Beijing to arrange the accommodation of the team for the 8th August clash against Italian champions Inter Milan. José Mourinho and two Lega Calcio representatives also joined them. They will be back on Tuesday 9th June, proving that a 3-days staying is not impossible for those who wish to follow Lazio this summer.
Basically Manzini and Canigiani are choosing the hotel, the training ground and will also choose the best travel match pack to sell to the fans who will be ready to follow the team in the Far East.
Besides, another hurdle to overcome is which stadium will host the Italian Supercup decider with the famous Bird’s Nest and the Workers Stadium in contention.
The first one was the main focus for last summer Olympic Games, while the second is a 60,000 all-seater stadium which hosted the Olympics football semi-final between Brazil and Argentina and some NFL games in the past.
Lazio though won’t follow the example of Manzini and Canigiani. They will leave for China at least one week in advance in order to get used as best as possible to the time zone. And they will probably face a friendly while there, but this is a choice the new manager will make. What’s for sure, the both clubs will earn 1 million and 125 thousand euros each just for being there, without including the amount of money Lazio and Inter will get for the TV rights. All in all it could be a massive marketing operation, due to the brands circulation.
Beijing municipality instead will get the cash of the match.