The Football Association, the governing body of football in England, has announced the launch of its first foreign-language website in Mandarin ahead of the FA Cup semi-finals this weekend, reports SportBusiness. The new website will focus on the FA Cup and England national football team, and will be complemented on China-based social media platforms Tencent and Sina.

The website will feature video highlights and player interviews as well as news, and the FA stated that there are also plans for the portal, which is managed in conjunction with Titan24, to stream selected England and FA Cup matches live.

"We plan to go live on the FA Cup semi-finals weekend," Sean McAuliffe, the FA's global head of business development.

"Our key intention is to increase interaction with fans of the England team in China, and those who avidly follow the FA Cup. Most of the content of the Mandarin website will be translated from TheFA.com but also a significant contribution to the website will be local content provided by our existing partners in the region.

"Naturally, we are also keen to maximise any commercial opportunities in China, as well as supporting our major global partners, Budweiser and Nike."

The social media platforms will seek to create online communities for Chinese fans of England and the FA Cup.

McAuliffe added: "In a year when The FA celebrates its 150th anniversary, our digital launch in China reflects that we continue to look for new opportunities to interact with fans everywhere."