Football Partnerships

By Alex Kotler

How Revolting!

Manchester United supporters, outraged by the club’s spiraling debt load, have recruited Keith Harris, a football finance specialist and broker, to lead a possible takeover bid.

“You sense that the momentum is gathering and this time these fans truly mean it,” he told the BBC in a recent interview. A United fan for 50 years, Harris is known for the sale of Chelsea FC to Roman Abramovich and Aston Villa FC to Randy Lerner.

The most important question, though, Harris pointed out explicitly: “What you don’t know is whether the Glazers can be made to listen.” Can they and should they?

Watch the Keith Harris interview

LA Sol eclipsed

After one year of operation, Women’s Professional Soccer club and 2009 runner-up LA Sol folded, following failed attempts by the league to sell the team.

Apparently, two original ownership groups pulled out mid-year, leaving LA Galaxy owners Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) to run the team until season’s end.

As the league heads into its second term, in which two new teams will join - the Atlanta Beat and the Philadelphia Independence - one cannot help but remember the fate of the now defunct WUSA. Surely we mustn’t let players like Marta find other leagues in which to flourish, right?

Read Nick Green’s take

But what I meant to say was…

The oft-criticized president of FIFA, Sepp Blatter, has clarified comments which seemed to point to Europe as the preferred choice and likely destination for World Cup 2018.

“I said it’s a possibility only if other associations do not bid. It is not a decision for the executive committee to change that right of every association to bid for a World Cup,” Blatter was quoted by news agency Reuters.

Perhaps, like the fans of Manchester United, we should all revolt against the conspiracy of the misquoting media.

Lubing up for 2010

Castrol has reached an with UEFA to be an official sponsor of UEFA EURO 2012, set to be jointly hosted by Poland and Ukraine.

Awarded with a worldwide rights package for the duration of the tournament, Castrol will provide insight into performances via the Castrol Index, a system that uses playercam technology to analyze and compare the performance of each player throughout the competition.

Grease your wheels in euFootball.biz

The ridiculosity of it all

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) announced that Togo will be banned from the next two Africa Cup of Nations and fined $50,000 due to the team’s withdrawal from this year’s tournament held in Angola.

Readers will remember that the Togolese team was attacked at gunpoint and fired upon. Three people died during the affair, and more were left injured and shaken.

Such a ban is more ridiculous than even the word ridiculosity.

Read more in the Epoch Times

The inaugural Castrol Rankings, the world’s first rankings based on the individual performance of every football player across Europe’s top five leagues, were unveiled last week by Portugal and Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo.

Read the rest of the article

Castrol has appointed Simon Meehan to run its World Cup 2010 and 2014 sponsorships in Europe and Africa, the biggest in the company’s 100-year history.

Meehan joins from Ford Europe where he ran that company’s Uefa Champions League sponsorship programme, and was responsible for developing its World Rally Car sponsorship rights package in 2007.

In a press release, Castrol said Meehan’s role will involve delivering a football and motorsport sponsorship strategy for the Europe and Africa regions.

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Castrol has appointed Kempster and VIPexperience to manage its international hospitality and ticketing programme for the football World Cup in 2010.

Kempster and VIPexperience also partnered with Castrol on its sponsorship of the Euro 2008 football tournament, but had to pitch with other agencies for the World Cup contract.

The World Cup is Castrol’s biggest sponsorship in its 100-year history, and follows a successful sponsorship of Euro 2008, for which it won the Best International Sponsorship Award from both the European Sponsorship Association and Hollis.

In a press release, Kempster said they would be planning and co-ordinating Castrol activities, and providing all logistics and delivery in the three host cities during the tournament.

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