JULY 17 — It’s that time of year again: mid-July, pre-season preparations are in full swing and the inevitable onslaught of far-flung training camps and exhibition matches for European football’s biggest names.

Manchester United are fitting Australia, Thailand, Japan and Hong Kong into a hectic schedule, while Manchester City have jetted to South Africa. Spanish giants Barcelona are preparing to visit Malaysia and Thailand, and their grand rivals Real Madrid are heading to the US. The list goes on.

The pre-season tour has become a key component of the annual calendar for Europe’s elite over the last couple of decades.

This is partly due to the team building and coaching benefits to be derived from gathering the entire squad en masse for an intense period of training away from the usual distractions of home life.

Far more importantly, though, the pre-season tour has become a rampantly commercial operation, with clubs taking advantage of (and hoping to significantly increase) their global prestige to scoop up lucrative contracts from grateful hosts.

The most widely and intensively visited region is, of course, Asia, with territories such as Malaysia, China and Indonesia receiving visits from European football’s biggest names with such clockwork regularity that many clubs must now be racking up serious loyalty points in the continent’s most glamorous hotels.

Again, the explanation is purely commercial. Asia is an enormously well-populated, prosperous (in parts), football-mad region, and from the point of view of target-driven commercial directors, many fans appear to be simply itching for the opportunity to throw as much money as possible at their favourite European stars.

This reflects the new reality of football as primarily a television sport. Whereas 20 or 30 years ago the majority of clubs’ overall income came from supporters who bought tickets to attend matches, their contribution is now almost insignificant compared with the riches on offer from the world’s biggest television networks.

Nowadays, it’s not much of an exaggeration to suggest that the main role of the fans inside the stadium is to make the sport look good on television, helping to create a more visually attractive, exciting and sellable asset to the global television audience.

This effect has been exacerbated by the remarkable and unstoppable growth of the Internet and social media networks, which allow fans from London, Kuala Lumpur and Sydney to follow their favourite club’s latest news with equal vigour.

In the past, the privilege of being a “true fan” was largely limited to a few thousand people living within easy travelling distance of their team’s stadium; now it’s quite possible for nearly anybody living anywhere in the world to watch every game and become extremely well (or comprehensively, at least) informed of the latest goings-on through the plethora of online sources at their fingertips.

For fans in the most popularly visited parts of Southeast Asia, including Malaysia, the good news is that they will continue to be flattered and cajoled by the leading European clubs, with the prospect of competitive fixtures being staged overseas surely just a matter of time from being introduced.

The English Premier League has already proposed, and temporarily shelved, the idea of adding a 39th game to its season, while Spain’s La Liga has strongly considered, and for the time being rejected, the idea of playing the annual Super Cup (between the previous season’s league and cup winners) in Asia.

These things will come sooner rather than later, simply because they are too lucrative not to.

All of this appears to be a win-win situation: clubs increase their revenues and international fans are given an occasional opportunity to get up close and personal with their favourite team, rather than just watching them on TV.

And an additional potential benefit is that clubs can further enhance their global popularity by making a genuine commitment to improving the football infrastructure in far-off nations. Many clubs are already doing this, with educational and coaching projects rapidly being implemented all over the world.

If this really benefits local people, it can only be a good thing. But there is also a danger that these programmes can be implemented for the wrong reasons: to make more money.

If clubs only target wealthy overseas fans and essentially attempt to fleece them for as much cash as possible, it will serve no long-term benefit.

Genuine grassroots community commitment requires helping the people who need it the most, not just the richest. In this respect, there is room for improvement still.

* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.