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Cardiff City’s Malaysian owners have bowed to a storm of protest from fans and Welsh Assembly members over plans to make the team play in red next season. This is one of the worst cases I have seen of claimed commercial logic threatening the heritage of a club. Unfortunately, rejection of the plans to play in red may threaten the club’s financial future.
A great fuss has been made about a local authority sponsorship of Tranmere Rovers which requires them to wear ‘Wirral’ on their shirts. In fact the sponsorship dates back to 1989 and enables the club to undertake various activities in the community. Nevertheless, various rent a quotes have been wheeled out to portray this as a great injustice to taxpayers.
Kettering Town are in a financially precarious position and Betfair have come up with an unusual sponsorship deal to help them out. They are sponsoring this Saturday’s match against Stockport County, but players must take to the field in complete 1970s replica kit, including vintage-style shirts and the ‘short shorts’ which were typical of the era.
The sponsorship commemorates the fact that the Poppies were the first English side to have a sponsor’s name on their shirts.
Real Madrid are planning a $1bn ‘football island’ holiday resort in the United Arab Emirates that is due to open in January 2015. The Real Madrid Resort Island will be supported by the government of the Emirate of Ras al-Khaimah. The island will include luxury hotels, a club museum and a futuristic 10,000-seat stadium with one side open to the sea.
International media rights are sold collectively by the Premier League, but Liverpool FC has expressed interest in taking control of those rights, particularly in Asia where the club is very popular. Fenway Sports Group (FSG) chairman Tom Werner told the Financial Times, ‘We certainly want to increase awareness [of the club] in Asia … if we can’t do that by transmitting the matches live, we still want to appeal to our fans there.’
Liverpool’s sponsors Standard Chartered have made it clear that they are not happy about the way that the club handled the Suárez affair. The bank said, ‘We were very disappointed by Saturday’s incident [at Old Trafford] and have discuss our concerns with the club.’ An ‘inisder’ is quoted by The Times as saying, ‘It was a very robust conversation.’
Liverpool have been boosted by their £150m six year kit deal with American company Warrior. Current manufacturers Adidas had claimed that the club was asking too much and had priced themselevs out of the market.
This is the first season since 1999/2000 that Liverpool have not competed in Europe but managing director Ian Ayre believes that the club’s global appeal gives them the financial muscle to absorb revenue lost from missing out on European football.
The iconic appeal of a top club’s shirt was evident when Sir Richard Branson donned one in Newcastle yesterday for the launch of the rebranding of Northern Rock as Virgin Money. For it quickly became apparent that Branson, who said that he now supports Newcastle United, has limited knowledge of football. He referred to the club’s ‘three love’ win against Manchester United and his ball control skills in a photo stunt appeared clumsy, leading bystanders to express the hope that he handled the business better than the ball.
The former vice-president and general manager of Barcelona, Ferran Soriano, has written a book entitled Goal the title of which is clearly designed to appeal to football fans, but the sub-title reveals its real intended market Management Ideas from the World of Football. Moreover, the book is published by Palgrave-Macmillan, the publishing house I primarily use, but we took The Transformation of European Football to Manchester University Press who are building up a list in the area.
The Bribery Act came into force in July and some clubs are worried about its possible impact on them. This is not a reference to payments or hospitality to the officials or even the players of the opposing team, which have not been unknown in countries such as Italy, but to the implications of the legislation for corporate hospitality at games. In these difficult times clubs do not want any threats to an important income stream that helps to keep them afloat.