Yingli Green Energy (Yingli) has launched ‘All Under One Sun’, the company’s official sponsorship campaign for the 2014 football World Cup.
Yingli held a launch event for the campaign in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China at which senior company management addressed the media. Vice president of global marketing Judy Tzeng Lee, said: “We chose this theme, 'All Under One Sun', because we believe that sun has no boundaries and is an endless energy that touches all of us…we have the responsibility to convert this endless energy into affordable green energy for everyone.”
Yingli said it intends to use the opportunity at the tournament, which takes place in Brazil next year, to “help everyone to learn more about solar and the concept of sustainability”.
The company will host online and offline programmes, including providing solar charging stations at stadiums along with various contests and opportunities for fans in China to have their picture taken with Fuleco, the official tournament mascot. The company has also stated that it is able to offer renewable energy solutions to the organising body FIFA’s official corporate social responsibility campaigns. Several of the stadiums at the forthcoming World Cup – which will see star players including Cristiano Ronaldo and Luis Suarez competing for their nations – have been fitted with PV arrays and other sustainability measures.
In 2010, Yingli was announced as the first ever Chinese sponsor of a World Cup as the event took place in South Africa. For the 2014 tournament, Yingli will once again be the only Chinese company as well as the only renewable energy company among the sponsors. The company is also a Premium Partner to top German team Bayern Munich, who won the UEFA Champions League tournament for club teams in 2013.
Other commercial tie-ups between football and solar include Jinko Solar’s sponsorship of Spanish club Valencia, which features the PV manufacturer’s logo on team shirts, while this season British second tier club Doncaster Rovers became the first UK league club to host a PV array on the roof of the club’s stadium, Keepmoat.
