Chelsea bolsters Asian ties with Nitto Tire deal

English Premier League football club Chelsea has announced a new three-year partnership in Thailand with Nitto Tire.

The company will become Chelsea’s official tyre partner in the country. Nitto Tire will be involved in Chelsea’s community football clinics at the existing Chelsea FC Soccer School in Bangkok, meet and greets with club legends, and joint roadshows with other Chelsea partners in Thailand, including Samsung, Adidas and Singha.

The agreement is the latest development in Chelsea's growth in the Asian market, ahead of its 'Here to Play, Here to Stay' summer tour, during which the club will be based in Bangkok before visiting Malaysia and Indonesia.

Adrian New, Chelsea’s managing director of Asia Pacific, said: “Chelsea FC's official website has been available in Thai since our last Asia Tour in 2011. We are also posting in Thai on our official Facebook page which has more than 650,000 likes from Thailand, and a dedicated Thai Twitter account. This clearly shows our dedication in reaching out to our Thai fans, especially when we opened a soccer school here in July last year.”