Real Madrid's Director of External Relations Emilio Butragueno said on Thursday that the club was unlikely to tour the Far East in the summer of 2010.

The club needs to exploit the multi-million dollar signings of players such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka and Karim Benzama and one of the best ways to do that is to play high-profile and lucrative exhibition matches in pre-season.

During Florentino Perez's first reign as Real Madrid President, the club visited the Far East on several occasions, allowing fans to see players such as David Beckham, Luis Figo and Brazilian striker Ronaldo first hand.

However, Butragueno says Asian fans will need to be patient before they see Cristiano, Kaka and company in the flesh.

"Next summer is going to be especially difficult, because the World cup doesn't finish until July 11. Then the players will need to have their holidays and pre-season is very important for us because we have to put down the basis for the rest of the year," Butragueno said in declarations printed in sports paper Marca.

However, the former player insisted that the club valued the Far Eastern market.

"We think that Asia is an essential part of our strategy and the club wants to recover its relationship with Asia and especially with China."

"Maybe there is a possibility for a Chinese team, maybe even the Chinese national team could play against us in Madrid. We will look into that in the future," he said.

(Xinhua News Agency September 25, 2009)