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Referees in the Professional Game Match Organisation have landed a seven figure sponsorship deal over three years. Their new sponsors are the Tune Group, who own Air Asia, emphasising once again how important the Asian market is to top flight football in England. The benefits for the sponsors are clear: access to over 2,000 games and 3 billion viewers worldwide.
Cash strapped Conference club Forest Green Rovers, who have been struggling to pay off historic tax debts, look as if they are about to be taken over. Dale Vince, Britain’s richest green entrepreneur, is poised to make a bid. His wind power company is based in Stroud, close to the Nailsworth club. He has built up a £85m fortune and ranks 657th in the UK’s rich list. He has previously sponsored Shortwood United.
The good news follows the announcement last week of a lucrative two-year shirt sponsorship with Coventry Building Society.
Adidas has raised its profit forecasts for the second time this year after the World Cup boosted sales. At the World Cup the German company supplied referees and officials’ kit while also supplying 12 of the 32 teams including the winners Spain. The shirts of Argentina, Germany and Mexico are among the company’s best sellers. For US rivals Nike the best-performing team was the Netherlands.
Leeds United are back in the npower Championship, but what is perhaps more important for sustainable success is that they are back on an even financial keel after many years of difficulty and disappointment.
Like many fans, I have drawers stuffed full of old football shirts, home kits, away kits, third kits, often with quite odd designs and colours, bearing the names of former sponsors, some of them no longer trading. No doubt if I hang on to them long enough they will become worth something.
The Premier League has made games software provider Electronic Arts, best known for its Fifa Soccer game which has sold 100m copies worldwide, its first official sports technology partner. It is the latest in a series of sponsorship deals with US groups. Five clubs are owned or part-owned by US investors (Arsenal, Aston Villa, Liverpool, Manchester United, Sunderland).
Although they have stopped short of issuing a fatwa, conservative Muslim clerics in Malaysia have attacked the symbolism of Manchester United’s trident-wielding red devil on the club’s crest. Muslims have been told that devils are their enemy and by wearing or accepting a gift of the shirt they would be promoting the devils.
Manchester United have been described by one US marketing executive as the global sporting brand that the New York Yankees baseball team ‘wish they were’. However, for all their success in Asia, can United really be described as a global brand when there are limits to their penetration of the North American market?
With a friendly against Hungary just three weeks away, the FA is stepping up the search for a new main England sponsor after Nationwide formally confirmed they are no longer interested. The FA decided not to re-sign with the building society before the World Cup, gambling that success would lead to a better deal. Now the FA has had to lower its sights to a £5m a year deal over four seasons rather than the £10m it was hoping for.
It was a rather ugly and petulant World Cup final. Johan Cruyff has denounced the Dutch tactics as ‘anti-football’. But South African president Jacob Zuma has proclaimed his citizens as ‘the real stars’ of the tournament.