October 19 – Manchester City turned British media heads when they travelled to Barcelona for their Champions League match. Gone was the (often) scruffy suit and tie look of overgrown schoolboys on tour and in came a modern, casually smart denim look. Even assistant manager Brian Kidd managed to carry off the style change.
October 18 – Adidas vs Nike or Man Utd vs Chelsea. The apparent ease with which Adidas let Nike takeover at Chelsea in a new £60 million per year, 15-year deal, suggests an even greater concentration by the sportswear sponsors on the mega club brands.
October 14 – Official gaming partner Marathonbet has launched an online Manchester United branded casino, the first live casino for a football club. Players can interact with dealers in real time in a virtual gaming environment that is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
By Paul Nicholson
October 12 – Arsenal, for the first time in a year, have topped Manchester United in the weekly Twitter followers growth chart, though they still remain behind the Manchester giants by almost 700,000 followers overall.
October 12 – Good wine matures with age and so do good sponsorship deals. Manchester United and Chilean wine producer Concha y Toro have renewed their global partnership for a further three years. No figure was announced for the sponsorship.
October 11 – FIFA has begun the sales process for the broadcast rights to the 2019 Women’s World Cup in France, launching an invitation to tender (ITT) for the UK media rights.
By Paul Nicholson
October 10 – Finding ways to monetise digital engagement and turn digital eyeballs into value-holding data is a holy grail for clubs as their digital teams increase in size alongside their digital followers.
By Paul Nicholson
October 7 – As a marketing tool football delivers though sponsorship sales are now more often referred to as ‘partnerships’ with exclusive ‘content’ options part of the package. The days of selling board signage, shirt positions and brand exposure as standalone package may not be entirely over, but they almost are.
October 6 – Malta-based Daily Fantasy Football (DFS) company Oulala is expanding in to Latin America, initially targeting Argentinean clubs with a white label version of its platform.
October 3 – Manchester City have extended their partnership with Vietnam’s Saigon Hanoi Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SHB). The bank will continue as Manchester City’s Official Affinity Card Partner in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.
By Samindra Kunti
September 30 – The French FA, the FFF and the French Football League, the LFP, will open an office in China early 2017. The office will aim to brand French football.
September 30 – Manchester City have kept up the pace of new club partnerships and initiatives with the announcement of pharmaceutical company Mundipharma as the ‘Official Healthcare Product Partner of Manchester City Football Club’ in Asia Pacific, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa. The club has also launched a new CityVR app to engage fans via virtual reality.
Mundipharma will use Manchester City branding in some of their marketing and advertising campaigns.
September 29 – Manchester City have extended their five-year partnership with EA Sports. The video game developer will remain as the Club’s Official Gaming Partner.
September 26 – Premier League Tottenham Hotspur have teamed up with Jaguar Land Rover China to deliver a year-long youth football development training programme in Guangzhou.
September 23 – Paris Saint-Germain has launched a new app, Fansparc, which is designed to give fans an immersive experience of PSG’s stadium, the Parc des Princes.