February 16 – Beko has extended its sponsorship of FC Barcelona, establishing the Turkish domestic appliance brand as a main partner and FC Barcelona’s official Training Partner whilst remaining FC Barcelona’s first choice for home appliances. Beko will also get a sleeve sponsorship position on the Barca shirt.
February 15 – Coca-Cola may have the World Cup rights but Pepsi own Lionel Messi, Marcelo, Tono Kroos and US women’s star Carli Lloyd. It is a classic global event brand vs the cult of the personality marketing war. Coke have the greatest show on earth, Pepsi have the greatest showman, and some of the next best too.
February 15 – Internazionale, who recently opened their state-of-the-art ‘Media House’ to drive the club’s content proposition, have taken another new step entrusting their official Instagram account to their mercurial Brazilian midfielder Rafinha for a day.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 14 – The bubble hasn’t exactly burst for domestic rights to show Premier League games but maybe a ceiling has been hit in terms of the value of matches.
By Mark Baber
February 14 – An updated study of Stadium Naming Rights by Duff & Phelps, the global valuation and corporate finance advisor, finds market rates of Premier League stadium naming rights have increased by over 80% over the last four years – rising from £74.6 million in 2013 to £135.6 mllion in 2017.
February 13 – Champions League sponsor Mastercard, who last week extended its 24-year partnership for another three-year cycle to 2021, has called up Pele to activate the brand sponsorship in advance of the last 16 knockout rounds.
February 12 – South Korean pharmaceuticals company, Cho-A Pharm, has renewed its sponsorship of Manchester United as the club’s Official Pharmaceuticals partner in South Korea and Vietnam.
By Mark Baber
February 9 – The Chinese company Yadea, a market leader in the production of electric-powered motorcycles, bicycles and scooters, has signed on as a Regional Supporter of the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
February 9 – Mastercard have become the fifth sponsor to sign up for the 2018-21 cycle of UEFA Champions League rights, following on from the announcement earlier this week that PepsiCo were renewing their deal with the top level of club competition in Europe.
February 8 – Manchester City has signed a new multi-year regional partnership with online trading broker AvaTrade who will become the club’s Official Online Trading Partner for China, Asia and Latin America.
February 8 – Coca-Cola has announced that its eCOPA Coca-Cola tournament will be an official EA Sports FIFA 18 Global Series qualifier event as part of ‘The Road to the FIFA eWorld Cup 2018’ that will be played in August.
February 7 – Italy’s Serie A has accepted Spanish’s MediaPro offer for rights to broadcast matches for the 2018-21 seasons at just above €1.05 billion.
February 6 – PepsiCo have renewed their sponsorship of the UEFA Champions League for a second three-year cycle taking them from the start of the 2018/19 until 2021. The deal also includes sponsorship of the UEFA Super Cup in 2018, 2019 and 2020.
By Mark Baber
February 6 – The General Sports Authority (GSA), Saudi Football Federation and the Saudi Telecom Co. (STC) on Monday signed a memorandum of understanding by which STC will have the sole rights for transmission of local football matches and the matches of Saudi national team.
February 5 – The move by clubs into general entertainment television programming via reality style behind-the scenes shows has now been taken a step further with Barcelona reportedly in preliminary talks with Disney-owned Pixar over the making of an animated feature film.