FC Bayern Munich will travel to South Korea and Hong Kong from August 1 to 8, marking the tenth consecutive year Audi has slapped its name on the club’s preseason tour. But this time, the soccer is sharing the stage with sheet metal.
Audi plans to use the South Korea stop to launch the new A6, turning a friendly match on Jeju Island into a dual-purpose marketing event. The club plays Jeju SK FC at Jeju World Cup Stadium on August 4, then flies to Hong Kong to face Aston Villa at the new Kai Tak Stadium on August 7.
The pairing of a car reveal with a preseason kickabout tells you everything about what these tours have become. They are trade shows dressed in soccer kits. Audi gets a captive audience of fans, local media, and regional partners. Bayern gets a title sponsor footing the bill for a week in Asia.
This arrangement dates back to 2014, when Audi first attached its four rings to Bayern’s summer travel plans. Since then, the tours have hit the U.S., China, Japan, and Singapore. The partnership itself stretches even further, to 2002, making it one of the longest-running sponsor relationships in European club soccer.
Vincent Kompany’s squad will hold public training sessions, press conferences, and player meet-and-greets at both stops. Fan zones around each stadium promise the usual interactive activations, which in sponsor-speak means branded photo ops and product displays.
The choice of destinations is deliberate. South Korea is a major market for German luxury automakers, and Audi has been fighting for share there against BMW and Mercedes-Benz for years. Hong Kong offers a dense concentration of wealth and media attention in a compact geography. Neither location is accidental.
Aston Villa’s involvement as the opponent in Hong Kong adds a sliver of competitive credibility. A Premier League side at least suggests the matches might produce something worth watching, unlike friendlies against lower-division local clubs that often feel like glorified scrimmages.
Audi leans hard into the symbolism of the number ten, comparing a decade of tour sponsorship to the iconic shirt number worn by playmakers. The metaphor is a stretch. Playmakers create something unpredictable. Sponsorship tours are the opposite, engineered down to the last social media post and dealer handshake.
Still, the model works. Bayern has one of the largest global fanbases in soccer, with deep pockets of support across Asia built through exactly these kinds of trips. Audi gets localized exposure that pure advertising cannot replicate. A player shaking hands with a fan next to a new A6 generates content that flows through club channels reaching hundreds of millions of followers.
The question nobody at Audi or Bayern will answer honestly is whether the soccer matters at all. Preseason friendlies in Asia routinely feature rotated squads, cautious tackling, and forgettable scorelines. The real competition is happening in the parking lot, where the new A6 will be parked under studio lights with a rope line around it.
Bayern returns to Germany after August 8. The A6 stays behind, heading to Korean showrooms.
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