Australian Rules Football will become the first foreign professional sport in the world to host a regular season match in China, when Port Adelaide Power plays the Gold Coast Suns in Shanghai in May 2017.

The match was announced by Australian Football League (AFL) CEO Gillon McLachlan alongside Port Adelaide president David Koch on 26 October at The Chinese Museum in Melbourne.

Port Adelaide FC, working with the AFL, has been driving the push into China for several years. Andrew Hunter, the club’s China and government relations general manager says the idea came from a “passionate Port Adelaide supporter” who was living in Hong Kong.

“Denis Way contacted the club with the idea of engaging in China,” he said. “It coincided with an aggressive strategy to expand the club’s commercial footprint, so it aligned perfectly and was supported by the chair and the board.”

Hunter explained that when the campaign began, “the sport was virtually unknown, and often confused with soccer or rugby”.

To change this, the club began producing a 20-episode AFL documentary series that was broadcast weekly on China Central Television (CCTV). The documentary followed Chen Shaoliang, captain of the China AFL team, who was brought to Adelaide at the start of the year to train with the club. It also features Shandong Li Jinsong, an international student who is employed by Port Adelaide to commentate matches in Mandarin.

Two Port Adelaide home matches were also shown on CCTV in April, with the second match viewed by 3.8 million people in China to become the most watched minor round match in the history of the sport.

Hunter said that the aim of playing the match in Shanghai is to promote the sport and attract new fans. But it is also about promoting Australia, with activities and food stalls coinciding with the match.

“Australian football is a window into the Australian soul and we believe that we can use sport to develop a greater understanding between the people of Australia and China,” he said.