Even though they have been struggling to bring back their glorious days for the past few seasons, English Premier League giants Manchester United unveiled a new plan to forge a partnership with China's technology behemoth Alibaba Group. The Red Devils made the announcement on their target of boosting the club's engagement with its Chinese fan base on Friday.

While announcing the partnership Manchester United Group managing director Richard Arnold said, "We're proud of our passionate and loyal following around the world and our Chinese fans are a huge part of that."

"We are always looking for new ways to engage with fans there and this partnership with Alibaba enables them to connect with the club directly through one of China's most popular video streaming platforms," he added.

According to the Manchester-based club, the partnership will make United-related content, including selected first-team matches, highlights and localized original productions, available to around 700 million consumers across Alibaba's platforms. There will also be a dedicated Manchester United channel on Alibaba's video-streaming platform, Youku.

The channel will feature the century-old club's Academy, women's and first-team tour games, plus first-team matches shown on-demand and global and China-specific content.

The joint venture will also pave the way for setting up of a Manchester United flagship store on Tmall, Alibaba's online retail platform, which will become the official online marketplace store selling the former Premier League champions' merchandise to Chinese fans.

Meanwhile, Alibaba Group president Michael Evans mentioned: "Manchester United is one of the most popular and successful football teams in the world, with a sizable and passionate fan base in China."

"We share the same goal, which is to provide fans with one-of-a-kind online content consumption and shopping that leverages the latest technology."