Valencia to swap Adidas for Puma in new €4m a year kit deal
April 2 – LaLiga’s Valencia will swap Adidas for Puma from next season in a €4 million a year kit deal that will run through to 2022.
Football Marketing
Bayern Munich launch Chinese credit card with CIB
April 2 – The German push into the Chinese market notched up another partnership with Bayern Munich signing a co-branded credit card deal with Industrial Bank of China (CIB).
Espanyol target China with Wu Lei signing and soccer school expansion
April 1 – Espanyol Barcelona have signed a strategic partnership with Chinese football school San Gao FC, expanding their operations in China. Atletico Madrid and the DFL also have plans to tap into the Chinese market.
Man Utd line up Spurs and Inter Milan for their Asian Summer travelogue
March 28 – Manchester teams will be battling it out pre-season in Asia but they won’t be playing each other.
Seifert questions domestic policy on TV rights split between two pay broadcasters
March 27 – Christian Seifert, chief executive of the Bundesliga, has called into question the league’s ‘no single buyer’ broadcasting rule which was introduced ahead of the current cycle that ends in 2021 and is designed to stop a single broadcaster from purchasing domestic rights to show all games from Germany’s top two divisions.
LaLiga launches OTT service with multi-sports content proposition
March 27 – LaLiga has launched its OTT streaming service, LaLigaSportsTV, which offers fans coverage of live LaLiga 1|2|3 content, as well as other Spanish sports.
Man City to headline Asia Trophy tournament against West Ham, Newcastle and Wolves
March 26 – The Premier League will play its pre-season Asia Trophy in Nanjing and Shanghai in China this July with Manchester City headlining the four-team line-up.
MLS picks SendtoNews to boost digital content reach
March 27 – Video platform SendtoNews will exclusively distribute MLS highlights to local partners as the league seeks to boost its digital content footprint.
Seat, Pelayo, and Sanitas renew deals with RFEF
March 25 – The Royal Spanish Fottball Federation (RFEF) has scored a hat trick of sponsorship renewals with Spanish carmaker Seat, insurance firm Pelayo, and private health clinic Sanitas all agreement extended terms.
England’s WSL lands Barclays as title sponsors in £10m deal
By Samindra Kunti
March 21 – In a landmark moment for English women’s football Barclays Bank signed a three-year, deal with the Women’s Super League. The top flight league will be rebranded as the Barclays FA Women’s Super League from next season.
PSG accues Evra of homophobia over ‘we’re men speaking’ post after UCL exit to Man Utd
March 21 – Ex-Manchester United defender Patrice Evra has denied he is homophobic after Paris Saint-Germain condemned what they say were insulting remarks aimed at the club by the former France captain.
France 2019 World Cup completes National Supporter line-up with Orange deal
March 20 – Women’s football is on a commercial roll. With nine nations confirmed as formally expressing interest to host the 2023 Women’s World Cup yesterday, the France 2019 Local and Organising Committee and FIFA have announced the sixth National Supporter sponsor for the World Cup to be played June 7 to July 7.
MLS spins the wheel with 4-year MGM betting partnership
March 19 – With the end to the prohibition of online sports betting in the US, sports now starting to see the licensing of digital gaming operators, sports bodies have been quick to seize the marketing and sponsorship opportunities.
Twitter secures broadcast deal for topflight Brazilian women’s matches
March 19 – The Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) has teamed up with social media platform Twitter in a broadcast deal for the Brazilian women’s top flight, the 2019 Campeonato Brasileiro de Futebol Feminino.
UEFA picks IMG to sell EURO 2020 hospitality for UK and Ireland
March 19 – UEFA, which last week issued a tender splitting its beer sponsor package into 12 pieces for the EURO 2020 championships, has these week awarded an exclusive sales agency contract to IMG to be its official hospitality sales agent for England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland.