Chinese Womens National Team (Kia Signage)       Kia Commercial Display (FIFA U-17 Korea)

Seoul, Sep 07 (Korea Newswire)-- Kia Motors announced today that it will be an Official Partner of the FIFA Women’s World Cup China 2007 as part of its status as FIFA Partner and official automobile of FIFA (in conjunction with its sister company Hyundai Motor). Kia is supplying official vehicles from its wide-ranging model line-up to the Women’s World Cup Organizing Committee and seeks to boost its brand recognition through commercial displays at the event venues and A-board advertisements in the stadiums.

The Women’s World Cup China 2007 is scheduled to kick off on September 10th with the champion to be crowned on September 30th. The matches will take place throughout China in the cities of Chengdu, Hangzhou, Shanghai, Tianjin and Wuhan. The event marks Kia’s second sponsorship of a FIFA championship on the heels of the FIFA U-17 World Cup Korea that runs through September 9th.

Building on its current partnership with FIFA, Kia Motors has also committed itself to supporting the development of Chinese football as a whole by serving as an official partner of the Chinese Football Association until 2010. Kia will comprehensively support all levels of men’s and women’s football including the China National Teams, National Olympic Teams and Youth National Football Teams.

Yong-Hwan Kim, Senior Executive Vice President & COO of Kia Motors, said, “Kia Motors views the active participation in football marketing as an integral part of our vision to become a formidable player on the global automotive stage. In line our young and energetic brand identity we have made a strategic effort to ramp up our presence in major sports sponsorships to boost Kia’s brand awareness worldwide.

In addition to its partnership with FIFA, which will also include the 2010 and 2014 World Cups, Kia Motors is also a UEFA EUROTOP Partner (including sponsorship of UEFA EURO 2008™) in conjunction with Hyundai Motor. On a local level, Kia Motors has partnered with several premier professional European football clubs including Atletico de Madrid of Spain, FC Bordeaux of France and FC Brussels of Belgium.

Kia Motors Corporation (www.kia.com) -- one of the fastest growing automakers in the world -- was founded in 1944 and is Korea’s oldest manufacturer of motor vehicles. As part of the Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group, Kia aims to become one of the world’s premier automotive brands. Kia’s 12 manufacturing and assembly operations in 8 countries produce more than 1.3 million vehicles a year that are sold and serviced through a network of distributors and dealers covering 165 countries. Kia today has over 33,000 employees and annual revenues of almost $19 billion. It is the major sponsor of the Australian Tennis Open and an official worldwide sponsor of the Davis Cup. From 2007 to 2014, Kia will be an official automotive partner of FIFA -- the governing body of the FIFA World Cup -- as well as a EUROTOP partner of UEFA. Kia Motors Corporation’s brand slogan -- “The Power to Surprise” -- represents the company’s global commitment to surpassing customer expectations through continuous automotive innovation.