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Barcelona is the latest European football club to invest in China on the back of President Xi Jinping’s plans for a football revolution. They have opened a €4m complex featuring a football school, Barcelona shop and fan zone on the island of Hainan. They believe that revenues from China will be critical to Barcelona’s target of generating €1bn of revenue by 2021, up from €679m in the 2015/16 season.
A one off sponsorship deal between FA Cup giant killers Sutton United and Sun Bet for their match against Arsenal has upset some Sutton United fans. The name of their regular sponsor, Greengo Waste, could still be seen in small lettering on the back of the shirts, but the front had a prominent sticker for Sun Bet.
Tottenham Hotspur are planning to drop the name White Hart Lane while Chelsea hope to retain the name Stamford Bridge in some form as the London rivals seek to secure naming rights for their new stadiums.
As Manchester United report a good set of quarterly results, it is worth recalling the description of them in the Lex column of the Financial Times last month: ‘a merchandising company that happens to play football.’
David and Victoria Beckham received more than £15m in dividends last year after profits at their business empire rose by 400 per cent. The couple have cashed in £28.1m in dividends in the last three years.
Beckham Brand Holdings recorded a pre-tax profit of £39.5m on revenue of £47.1m in the year to 31 December. This was up from a profit of £9.9m on £51.5m of revenue in 2014. The company could be worth £316m with the Beckhams’ share worth about £208m.
If you look at today’s Premier League table there are the top six clubs (three from London, two from Manchester, one from Merseyside) and then nine points behind the last of the top six can be found Everton. Given their history, Everton fans feel that they also qualify as a top club.
Farhad Moshiri has a 49.9 per cent stake in the club and he has made them a £80m interest free loan. He has vowed to return them to the elite of English football.
FC Barcelona have signed a short sponsorship deal worth at least €220m with Japanese retailer Rakuten. The four season deal is worth €55m a year, a similar amount to the £47m a year that Manchester United earns in its contract with Chevrolet.
Barcelona has also signed deals to capture the Turkish electronics giant Beko on its shirtsleeves and US semiconductor company Intel unusually on the inside of its shirts. It’s a long way from just having Unicef on its shirts.
One can devise rules to restrict external investment in football clubs, but it is also possible to find ways of getting round them. That is what the German Bundesliga has found.
RB Leipzig are currently second in the top German league. They are sponsored by Red Bull, the energy drinks manufacturer, and play at the Red Bull Arena. They are affiliated to New York Red Bulls and Red Bull Salzburg, the Austrian champions, both of whom play at grounds called the Red Bull Arena.
The latest crowd trouble at West Ham’s London Stadium is going to make securing a naming deal more difficult. The spectacle of fighting fans is not one a sponsor needs to boost their image.
It was always going to be difficult because what is on offer is really the sponsorship of West Ham. The stadium would have to be debranded for other events such as the World Athletics Championship next summer. Moreover, sponsors prefer to put their name to a new stadium.
Chelsea has signed a kit sponsorship deal with Nike worth £900m, the largest of its kind in the Premier League. The 15-year deal is reported to be worth £60m a year.
The size of the contract reflects the rapid rise in the cost of football kit and sponsorship deals as the international audience for Premier League games has grown.
Chelsea ended its previous kit relationship with Adidas in May. That deal had been worth £300m over ten years, but the club decided that it was well below market value.