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Hull City is to be rebranded as Hull City Tigers. The move will do away with the Association Football Club (AFC) moniker which has been part of the Yorkshire club’s name since their formation in 1904.
Revealing the move, Egyptian-born businessman and owner Assem Allam said: ‘Hull City is irrelevant. My dislike for the word ‘City’ is because it is common. [In the sense of ‘commonly used’]. City is also associated with Leicester, Bristol, Manchester and many other clubs.’
Manchester United continue to build their sponsorship in Asia with a new multi-year sponsorship deal with Pepsi.
Under terms of the agreement, PepsiCo will become the Official Soft Drinks Partner of Manchester United in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Brunei.
With little over a fortnight to go to the start of the season the Football Conference has found a new title sponsor for the next three seasons – global online payment company Skrill. The newly named leagues will now be known as The Skrill Premier, The Skrill North and The Skrill South.
How concerned should football clubs be about the ethics of the companies on their shirts? It’s an issue that has caused some controversy at Newcastle United who are sponsored by payday loan company Wonga. This blog post attempts to rank Premier League clubs in terms of the ethics of the firms that sponsor them.
The Football League did not find it easy to secure a new sponsorship after the end of the npower contract, but eventually concluded a dual deal this week. The Conference face a similar dilemma following the end of the Blue Square Bet deal and time to secure a new sponsor is running out.
Leeds United are in talks over a lucrative link-up with energy drink giant Red Bull that could lead to the renaming of the club’s Elland Road ground. It is being reported that top-level discussions have started between the club and the company about a possible shirt sponsorship agreement.
No-one involved in those discussions is prepared to go on record as to how far reaching any deal could be. But today’s revelation is likely to prompt speculation that a stadium naming rights deal could also be under consideration.
The Football League’s long search for a sponsor has culminated in a deal with Sky Bet that will last for the next five years. At the same time it has extended its broadcasting arrangement with Sky Sport.
The dual agreement is worth about £300m. The extension of the Sky Sports deal is worth more than the £195m the League earned from the previous agreement.
Manchester United became the last Premier League club to join Twitter yesterday. Within three hours they had more followers than the three most recently promoted teams combined.
They also launched on Sina Weibo, China’s main microblogging site, which has 500 million users. Foreign language Twitter feeds will follow.
Manchester United took a further step in extending its global reach today by breaking into the Russian market, announcing a five-year partnership with Aeroflot which will become the club’s Official Carrier.
Among the BRICs, Russia is generally discussed in terms of club ownership, but is a potentially significant market for English football if it can be navigated properly. With its highly sophisticated marketing operation, Manchester United is in a position to do that.
Swansea City has agreed its largest sponsorship deal in the club’s 101-year history with GWFX which is one of the core brands under the fast growing global financial services provider Goldenway which is based in Hong Kong. Goldenway Global Investments (GWFX) provides a full range of online trading services such as forex trading and contract for differences (CFD) to clients.