January 24 – Manchester City has taken a bigger step into the world of virtual reality with the launch of a match-day 360° VR fan experience. Fans will be able to experience the players arrival in the ‘Blue Carpet’ as well as getting dressing room access.
January 20 – Major League Soccer has unveiled giant retailer Target as a new sponsor in a multi-year deal that begins this season. This is the first football (soccer) sponsorship for Target who also announced they would become MLS expansion side Minnesota United’s shirt sponsor.
January 20 – The pattern of growth in Facebook Likes has been remarkable over the past five weeks as Manchester City had a growth of nearly 330,000 followers, nearly matching Manchester United’s 388,000 – on the face of it a major step forward for the blue side of the City.
January 18 – Italian giants Juventus have taken a huge branding step with the unveiling of a radical new logo and a club ‘philosophy’ based around expanding the club’s fanbase, commercial opportunities and deepening fans’ emotional involvement with the club.
January 18 – Italian bank Unicredit will not be renewing its official sponsorship of UEFA club competitions, including the Champions League, when its deal runs out at the end of the 2017/18 season, according to Unicredit CEO Jean-Pierre Mustier.
January 17 – Watford showed the largest percentage growth in Twitter followers in the Premier League this week, as it led the mourning over the sudden death of Graham Taylor, a legendary manager at the club. Hull City, with new manager Marco Silva beginning to hit his stride, led the ranking of clubs tweeting the most.
By Paul Nicholson
January 15 – Lagardère Sports have won the international sales rights to CONCACAF events including this year’s Gold Cup, taking over from last international sales reps IMG who held the contract for a year. No details were given on the deal or the size of the guarantee that Lagardère made.
January 12 – Manchester United has signed taxi app Uber as a global sponsor partner. No figure was announced for the sponsorship that will see Uber designated as the Official Ride of Manchester United.
January 11 – Plus500 will remain as the shirt sponsor of La Liga’s Atlético Madrid at least until the end of the 2017/18 season. No figures were announced for the sponsorship renewal which will see Plus500’s logo on the club shirt when it moves to its new 68,000 capacity Wanda Metropolitano stadium later this year.
January 10 – With the Premier League breaking for FA Cup matches last weekend, the clubs’ twitter activity saw a slight decline though the number of new followers to clubs saw little impact with Manchester United putting on 76,000 new followers and Arsenal 62,800.
January 9 – Premier League Tottenham Hotspur who have made Australia a key part of their pre-season tour plans over the past two years, has announced a grassroots ‘Soccer Schools’ programme for 2017 across the country.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 6 – Veteran African football chief Issa Hayatou, who briefly ran FIFA after Sepp Blatter was forced out of office but who is no stranger himself to controversy, is back in the firing line for allegedly abusing his position.
December 6 – Social media reports this week trumpeted the power and popularity of Facebook over other social media platforms – seven times more popular than Twitter and Instagram. But looking at the weekly growth rates in the Premier League, it is clear that the main social action is currently happening on Instagram.
January 4 – Premier League clubs amassed a total 605,000 new Twitter followers over the two-week Christmas and New Year period. A massive 25% of those followers were for Manchester United.
January 3 – Manchester City have announced dates for a second ‘hackathon’, this time in conjunction with Google. The event will take place February 10-12 at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester.