Football Partnerships

By Alex Kotler

Yellow card! Brown to tackle Premier League

The British government is poised to insert itself into Premier League football, with a series of proposals giving fans first option to buy for-sale clubs and requiring that teams make 25% of shares available for purchase by supporters’ groups.

The Labour manifesto, according to the report by Owen Gibson of The Guardian, is the result of Portsmouth’s financial collapse, the leveraged buyouts of Manchester United and Liverpool and other high-risk ventures. Prime Minister Gordon Blair is now on a ‘collision course’ with the Premier League, and one hopes that he doesn’t come in studs up for the tackle.

Is this unnecessary meddling or should the government be involved?

Read about it in The Guardian

Kardashian is no Bridge over troubled water

More important than an intervention by Gordon Brown is knowing with certainty that US reality television-star Kim Kardashian is not dating Manchester City defender Wayne Bridge.

While we try to keep it strictly business here on Football Partnerships, this story was to good not to give it press. Having recently split, again, from Super Bowl winner and New Orleans Saints running back Reggie Bush, Kardashian supposedly responded to the rumors of her new beau by revealing that she had no idea who Wayne Bridge was.

Apparently, this match is not quite the same one orchestrated by Cristiano Ronaldo’s handlers who had the Portuguese shopping in Beverly Hills with Paris Hilton.

Read about it in TMZ

Hang up! The line is tapped

Following the arrests of 15 people in Germany last November suspected of fixing over 200 matches in Europe, a further 40 were taken into custody in Turkey this past week.

Of those accused are former Turkish international Arif Erdem, now coach of Istanbul Buyuksehir Belediyespor, and supposed ringleader Ante Sapina, who served time in Berlin for bribing German referee Robert Hoyzer.

How widespread is match-fixing? Does it happen where you live?

Read the report by Tim Mansel in the BBC

Seeing Blue. Seeing Red.

On American shores, Women’s Professional Soccer side Sky Blue FC and Major League Soccer franchise New York Red Bulls have taken different approaches to their marketing campaigns.

Seasoned PR and communications specialist Joe Favorito takes a look at each organization’s marketing approach and the challenges faced.

What is your brand’s strategy? Do you work from the community up or from the top down?

Read the original article

Platini pulls reigns on spending

UEFA president and ardent “anti-financial doping” advocate Michel Platini looks set to impose a plan designed to reduce and regulate spending by European-based football teams.

Willie Gannon, a featured columnist for the Bleacher Report, distills the report and isolates the numbers worth knowing. Meanwhile, Platini intends to run for a second UEFA term.

Did you know that debt owned by the English Premier League is almost four times greater than La Liga’s debt of £858 million?

Grab a seat in the Bleachers

Michel Platini’s plan to force clubs to live within their means - dubbed “financial fair play” - is expected to be approved today at a UEFA executive meeting while the Premier League has also announced rule changes for greater financial regulation.

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By Ryan Lucas

UEFA president Michel Platini said Thursday that Poland’s preparations to co-host the 2012 European Championship with Ukraine are on track, wrapping up his visit to the tournament co-hosts on an upbeat tone.

“I don’t see any big, big problems as far as the organization is concerned,” Platini said. “Things are advancing well, and I want to congratulate the minister (of sport) and the football federation.”

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Poland may host the 2012 European Championship on its own if Ukraine does not complete its Kiev stadium on schedule, UEFA president Michel Platini was quoted as saying by Polish media.

According to Reuters, the Dziennik daily reported that Platini also played down speculation Germany could step in to host the tournament.

“Germany? Only if the bulldozers are still working at the National Stadium in Warsaw in June 2012, but I doubt that,” Platini told the paper. “Kiev is another matter. If this city is late with the stadium, then there is a possibility that Euro 2012 will be hosted only by Poland.”

UEFA has already threatened to take the tournament away from Poland and Ukraine if they fail to speed up stadium construction and tackle major infrastructure problems.

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Ukraine and Poland will tell UEFA this week that recent major organisational changes have started to solve their many problems in jointly hosting Euro 2012, Reuters reports.

According to the news service, ministers from the two countries will present a joint report on Wednesday to a meeting of UEFA officials on the state of preparations, sharply criticised earlier this year by UEFA president Michel Platini.

“We will approach 2009 as a single team and will get all cities ready for Euro 2012 in a responsible fashion,” Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Ivan Vasyunyk told reporters after a meeting of top officials from both countries.

“Our new structure gives us reason to believe that we will form a unified team to tackle all tasks in 2009 and in staging the tournament.”

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