By Paul Nicholson
July 1 – Spain’s LaLiga has officially rebranded itself for the 2016/17 season with the ending of the BBVA title sponsorship deal. LaLiga and LaLiga2 are now the official names for the top two tiers of the league.
July 1 – This weekend Premier League Manchester City are throwing their doors open to fans in what is called a ‘Cityzens Weekend’ to celebrate the arrival of Pep Guardiola and the launch of club’s new badge, website and home kit.
June 30 – EA Sports has launched an investigation following reports of a “chemistry inconsistency” in FIFA’s 2016 Ultimate Team (FUT) game that has prompted scores of complaints from players demanding a boycott of the game over fears they’re being cheated.
June 30 – Manchester City have kept up the pace with their football leading social media output with the launch of a Facebook Messenger account, the first football club to open one.
By David Owen
June 28 – Just when it looked like Euro 2016’s Battle of the Brands was about to come down to a straight shoot-out between Nike and Adidas, along came the tournament’s Manic Monday to make sure that four kit suppliers are still in with a chance of glory at the quarter-final stage.
June 24 – Marketed as a ‘hackathon’ Manchester City is opening its doors and its player data to students and experts in technology, data and digital product design to come up with new innovations that will provide new insights on player performance.
June 24 – Kit supplier New Balance, conspicuous by its absence as a national team kit provider at both the Copa America and Euro 2016 championships, has today officially unveiled its new Audazo football collection of boots with specialist footwear for small-sided football and futsal.
June 24 – Premier League Southampton are the latest English club to announce that they will spend some part of their pre-season preparation in the US. Although not competing in the International Champions Cup being held in the US in July, Saints will be on the East coast of the US at a training camp in Baltimore.
By David Owen
June 23 – Nike is running away with Euro 2016’s battle of the brands after a final round of group games negotiated without defeat by its six participating teams.
June 22 – Forget the ‘in or out’ vote for the UK’s future in Europe on Thursday, Liverpool fans – who definitely won’t be in Europe next season – have until Friday to vote for the winning picture of the new Main Stand redevelopment at Anfield.
June 22 – We:eX, maker of wearable technology, has begun the trade roll-out of its Football Fan Shirt that connects fans through ‘touch’ with the players ‘emotions’ on the pitch.
June 21 – US-based daily fantasy sports (DFS) platform has moved to accelerate its UK expansion of players with the acquisition of the player database of free-play DFS platform TransferKings.
June 21 – The Premier League has renewed its TV production partnership with IMG that sees more than 200,000 hours of programming broadcast globally. The two will continue to operate via Premier League Productions (PLP) for another three seasons to the end of 2018/19.
By David Owen
June 19 – Puma were the big winners in the second round of Euro 2016’s battle of brands. Austria’s fortuitous goalless draw with Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal in Paris on Saturday night ensured that the cat brand’s five teams all avoided defeat in their respective second matches at the tournament.
By David Owen
June 15 – Portugal’s failure to defeat tiny Iceland in industrial Saint-Etienne on Tuesday night has not prevented its shirt supplier Nike from taking an early lead in Euro 2016’s Battle of the Brands.