AIA Group in five year sponsorship deal with Tottenham Hotspur

Following the success of AIA's Cup Shirt partnership with English Premier League football club Tottenham Hotspur ("Spurs") in the 2013/14 season, AIA Group has announced that it has entered into a new long-term partnership with Spurs.

Under the agreement, the AIA brand will feature on the shirts of Spurs players in all competitions until the end of the 2018/2019 season.

The new partnership was celebrated at a signing ceremony in Hong Kong attended by Mark Tucker, AIA Group Chief Executive and President, and Tottenham Hotspur Chairman, Daniel Levy.

Mark Tucker said: "English Premier League football has tremendous appeal in Asia and following the success of our Cup Shirt sponsorship of Spurs this season, we are now delighted to be entering this new partnership with the club. They have a massive fan base in Asia and we look forward to helping them further expand their presence here, as we continue to grow our franchise and communicate the strength, breadth and depth of the AIA brand to consumers in our seventeen markets around the Asia-Pacific region".

Daniel Levy, Tottenham Hotspur Chairman, commented: "We have enjoyed an excellent relationship with AIA since they became our Cup Shirt Partners at the beginning of this season. Together we share long-term ambitions across Asia, a region where the club has seen significant growth in recent years, and this extended partnership with AIA, one of the leading companies in the Asia-Pacific region and a clear market leader in their industry, will further help to support our objectives and engage with our supporters across the region. We are delighted that AIA has committed to the Club for a further five years and look forward to developing our partnership further".

AIA's support of Spurs reinforces AIA's brand position as The Real Life Company, which encapsulates the company's longstanding commitment to be deeply engaged in people's lives. Recognising the vital role that active participation in sport plays in promoting a healthy lifestyle and the special motivation top calibre professional sportsmen can provide as role models, AIA and Spurs also announced today that a series of Junior Training Programmes would be undertaken this year in selected AIA markets around the region, at which Spurs coaches will work with underprivileged children to further develop their interest and participation in football.

Football also teaches young people the value of teamwork and as such, it has a positive impact that extends well beyond the playing field. In addition Spurs are committed to bringing the first team on a number of Asian tours over the period of the agreement.

Tottenham Hotspur is one of the top-ranked teams in the English Premier League and has a following of over 180 million supporters globally, with eighty million of those fans residing in Asia. Spurs is one of only three clubs to have won the FA Cup eight times or more and to have won the Capital One English League Cup four times.

They were the first British club to win a European trophy after winning the European Cup Winners' Cup, and they have also won the Europa League, when it was known as the UEFA Cup, on two occasions.