CANBERRA, March 9 (Xinhua) -- The A-League champions Melbourne Victory announced a new deal recently with Chinese company TCL for the rest of their AFC Champions League campaign after the controversy over their former front-of-shirt sponsor in the opening round.
On Tuesday, the traditional powerhouse of the Australian top-flight men's league, had to change to choose new playing jersey without a sponsor's name on the front just hours before their Group F match with Daegu FC, which ended in a disappointing 3-1 defeat for the Melbourne side at home.
"Melbourne Victory wishes to advise after further investigation and consideration, it will not be entering into an agreement with Kaishi Entertainment during the AFC Champions League or in any other capacity," said the club in a statement on Friday.
"The club's concerns remain that this company has links to online gambling, thus sits outside AFC guidelines and our internal policies, despite their representations otherwise."
The A-league club on Friday also announced that TCL Electronics are chosen as its front-of-shirt partner for the remainder of the 2019 AFC Champions League (ACL).
"We are grateful for the commitment TCL has shown us, adding the ACL front-of-shirt property to their partnership," said Melbourne Victory CEO Trent Jacobs.
"TCL is a multi-national electronics company with significant business interests in Asia and we look forward to working with them throughout the competition and beyond."
According to the club, TCL, founded in China in 1981 and one of the world's leading consumer electronics manufacturers, has been already a strong supporter of the cub in the major partner category with its branding appears on the club's A-League and W-League (women's to-flight) match day playing shorts and media polos.
In this season's champions league, Melbourne Victory is placed in Group F where there are also the former AFC champions Guangzhou Evergrande FC of China, Sanfrecce Hiroshima from Japan and South Korean side Daegu FC.
