Ligue 1, French soccer’s top flight, will alter its Sunday kick off times from the 2020/21 season in an effort to further engage the Chinese market.

According to French professional football league (LFP) chief executive, Didier Quillot, kick off times will be moved back to 1pm Central European Time (CET) to boost the league’s Chinese presence and try to compete with the English Premier League and Spain’s La Liga in terms of exposure.

Speaking to Chinese media, Quillot said: “We need to program matches earlier in the day. Starting from 2020, we will have one match every Sunday to kick off at 1 pm in France, as what we did on matches between Lyon and Monaco and Nice and PSG.

“In terms of marketing, we need to have different content based on storytelling. We need to start to develop content more dedicated to the Ligue 1 region, trying to invent new way of storytelling of Ligue 1.”

This move is part of what Quillot calls “a global action plan”, in an attempt to position Ligue 1 as one of European soccer’s top properties.

“Today we are catching up with Serie A (Italian top flight) in terms of value and attractiveness. We need to catch up with Bundesliga (German top flight), but it is a long journey," he added.

Last year’s French Super Cup, the annual pre-season curtain raiser between the Ligue 1 champions and Coupe de France winners, was played in Shenzhen, China. The fixture between PSG and AS Monaco drew more than 40,000 fans through the gate.

French clubs such as Marseille and AS Monaco have also launched on TikTok, known as Douyin in China, where it is extremely popular.

The 2018/19 season has seen PSG retain the Ligue 1 title, the club’s sixth league crown in the last seven seasons.