The ceremony formed part of the exciting announcement that the Brisbane Lions will play Melbourne in the AFL’s first ever exhibition match in China as part of the 2010 Shanghai World Expo.
The match will take place at the Jiangwan Sports Centre in Shanghai on Sunday 17 October 2010. The stadium at the Jiangwan Sports Centre in the Yangpu District has a capacity of up to 30,000 spectators and it's hoped that two local university teams will participate in a curtain raiser to the main game.
Bernie was joined by Melbourne mascot Ronald ‘Dee’ Man and the AFL's General Manager of National and International Development David Matthews who signed the stadium agreement together with representatives from the Yangpu Government at the KIC Resource Centre.
Bernie spent time teaching some of the local Shanghai children the finer skills of Australian Rules football during his trip before heading back to Brisbane.
The AFL is working closely with the Australian, Victorian and Queensland governments and the City of Melbourne to promote the exhibition match.
Queensland Premier Anna Bligh recorded a message to the people of Shanghai to support the AFL’s presentation and welcomed the chance to showcase the natural wonders and business opportunities of Queensland during the Expo.
It will be the Brisbane Lions' third official international match in their history - and the first ever played in Asia - after the Lions previously competed in pre-season clashes against Fremantle in Cape Town, South Africa (1998) and the Adelaide Crows in Wellington, New Zealand (2001).
The AFL will feature prominently at the World Expo as Australia's leading football code, contributing $3.4 billion annually to the Australian economy and with 7 million people attending AFL each year. There are nearly 700,000 registered participants across Australia (with more than 100,000 in Queensland) and 45,000 players across 35 countries around the world.
