Manchester City backs Thai youth football competition

English Premier League champion Manchester City has entered into a two-year marketing partnership to promote Thai seven-a-side youth football tournament Seven Shoot.

Seven Shoot is in its sixth consecutive year and City will collaborate with competition title sponsor KFC to help grow an event that currently attracts more than 3,000 teams featuring players aged 12-15.

City players such as captain Vincent Kompany and Spanish playmaker David Silva will appear in marketing material across 500 of the fast food chain’s outlets in Thailand and on billboard advertising. The winner of Seven Shoot 2014 will be flown to Manchester to take part in skills and training sessions at City’s Football Academy.

City recently launched Thai language versions of its official club website and Twitter feed and the new partnership is the club’s latest move to engage with overseas markets. It is a stakeholder in US Major League Soccer newcomer New York City FC, Australian A-League team Melbourne Heart and Japanese J-League club Yokohama F-Marinos.