Gruelling globe-traversing trips to the Far East and US are not what Sir Alex Ferguson and Jose Mourinho would have planned as the ideal preparation for a new football season. But, as both coaches know, these jaunts are not about football; they are marketing exercises, designed to increase the customer base for the clubs' merchandise and services.
Although United has had a substantial fan base in the Far East for some years, the prevalence of bootleg merchandise in the region has made it difficult to extract revenue from their loyalties. But branded TV channels, providing player interviews and match coverage to fans starved of club news and unable to attend games, are seen as a much more viable cash generator.
The most advanced, Manchester United's MUTV, will be seven years old in September. It has about 100,000 subscribers in the UK and Ireland, each paying 拢6 a month to receive the channel on the Sky, ntl:home and Telewest Broadband platforms.
Chelsea, Celtic and Glasgow Rangers - the latter two channels operated by Irish sports broadcaster Setanta - share the same platforms, while a number of other clubs operate broadband TV services on their websites.
Arsenal, meanwhile, has experimented with an hour-a-day TV service in the Far East and is preparing to launch a full-blown channel.
Live action
MUTV is available to 80m viewers in 68 overseas countries. It is hoped this summer's Far East tour, taking in the club's first visit to China, will boost this figure dramatically. Market surveys suggest that United already has 23m serious followers in China, with as many as 500m claiming to favour the club.
A drawback to their expansion in the UK market, though, is that football TV channels carry no competitive live action. MUTV has exclusive live rights to the Far East tour, but domestic and European competition games are shown 'tape-delayed' at midnight on the day of the match.
A football TV channel with no live action is akin to a pub that only sells non-alcoholic drinks, so you would expect the top clubs to be looking to pick up more rights in the next round of TV negotiations. In this, they will be assisted by the EU, which, having failed to end Sky's monopoly of Premiership matches last time around, has signalled its determination to do so when the next contracts are negotiated in time for the start of the 2007/08 season.
Manchester United's new American owner, Malcolm Glazer, has identified media rights as an underexploited revenue-earner. At the very least, he wants to see the club gain the overseas rights to matches. He may be prepared to take on the Premier League and rival clubs by demanding an end to the existing collective exploitation of domestic rights.
However, he is unlikely to count on the support of Chelsea. Chris Tate, managing director of Chelsea Digital Media, says the club does not see any commercial opportunity in taking over its own live TV rights. He believes the real future lies in technology, broadband developments and mobile communications.
'Among the core age group of 13- to 25-year-olds, there is much more demand for mobile content than TV services. They want to see clips of goals, not live matches,' says Tate. 'Mobile technology is an incredibly democratic way of receiving content; you download only what you want to see.'
Building allegiances
Tate recently signed a deal with Thai mobile company True Mobile. Thais have long been aficionados of English football, and most support Manchester United or Liverpool. Yet Tate is confident that as long as Chelsea continue last season's Premiership success, Thais and other foreign fans will easily switch their allegiance.
A belief in the mobile platform as a way of exploiting content was key to the choice of Samsung as Chelsea's shirt sponsor, according to Tate.
The 拢50m deal was negotiated by chief executive Peter Kenyon, who brought in Vodafone as Manchester United's shirt sponsor when at the club.
Tate also sees big overseas expansion opportunities for Chelsea TV, mainly in video-on-demand, and does not believe a lack of live rights is a barrier.
'We can show all Chelsea's games on Chelsea TV eight hours after the end of the match, and with the time differences, that fits in nicely with the Far East,' he says.
China's huge population and Japan's wealth and Anglophilia have so far made the Far East the most popular market for English clubs' overseas ambitions. But the US, with its linguistic and cultural similarities, is starting to be seen as having equal, if not greater, potential. So it is no surprise to see Chelsea spend their first summer as English champions there, while Manchester United toured the US in the previous two pre-seasons.
Glazer, who also owns the Tampa Bay Buccaneers gridiron team, is particularly keen to crack the US market. Aside from its well-developed pay-TV habit, the country houses most of the world's big sport sponsors and advertisers.
Having usurped Manchester United's domination of the Premiership, Chelsea must now challenge United for the hearts, and cash, of its overseas fans.
Its ambitions to be a global brand rest on the outcome.
DATA FILE - FOOTBALL CLUB TV CHANNELS
Celtic
Celtic TV is sold by Setanta in a 拢14-a-month Sky package that includes live coverage of all Scottish Premiership games. It costs 拢6.99 a month on ntl:home.
Glasgow Rangers
Rangers TV is sold in a similar 拢14-a-month package. Ulster-based fans are being targeted as subscribers. A daily news show and a phone-in are among the channel's regular programmes.
Chelsea
Chelsea TV costs 拢6 a month. The subscriber base is claimed to have grown by 50% since the Premiership win. The channel is available to 27m homes in 17 territories.
Liverpool
Liverpool.tv was launched in 2001 as an internet TV channel. It offers premium content including match highlights, player interviews and press conference coverage for 拢4.99 a month.