Football Partnerships

By Alex Kotler

Fears of ‘Terror’Blanche uprisals

The death of Eugene Terre’Blanche has sparked fears of repercussions in the build up to the 2010 World Cup.

Terre’Blanche, a right-wing secessionist of the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) group, was killed by laborers on his farm in Ventersdorp on April 3. Pieter Steyn, a general in the AWB, has assured fans and fellow South Africans that no retaliation should be expected.

Should FIFA be concerned? Will this further impact ticket sales for the World Cup?

Read Giles Richards account in the Guardian

Weight loss: United drop £15 million

Defeat by German side Bayern Munich in the UEFA Champions League will cost Manchester United £15 million.

According to a study by International Journal of Sports Marketing & Sponsorship, as reported by Matt Cutler in SportBusiness, the Red Devils’ quarter final exit will hit the bottom line.

Cutler writes: “UEFA distributes £3.5 million to each [Champions League] semi-finalist and £4.5 million to the beaten finalist.” Further, “United would also have earned a likely £3 million plus from gate receipts and commercial revenues from hosting a semi-final.”

After being knocked out of the FA Cup in the third round to Leed United, the only thing one can say is: Dang!

More detail in SportBusiness

Red Bulls go Continental

Major League Soccer club Red Bull New York have reached an agreement with Continental Airlines to be the team’s exclusive airline.

According to Continental’s Senior Vice President of Marketing Programs, Mark Bergsrud, the deal will “help the airline tell customers about its service in the New York area.”

Learn a tad more in BusinessWeek

The World Cup: Avatar Style

Soccer may yet recruit a new and unlikely fanbase: Sci-Fi theatre goers.

With the acquisition of exclusive 3-D cinema and entertainment-venue rights by Swiss-based company Aruna Media AG, this year’s World Cup will be screened in theatres across 26 countries.

Would you watch the World Cup in 3-D?

More (again) in SportBusiness

¡Huelga! ¡Huelga! ¡Huelga! ¡Huelga!

El Clásico behind us, the rest of the Spanish season may be too.

Players in Spain’s lower tiers have not been paid and the AFE, the players’ union, has called for a strike. A meeting is set for today to address the situation.

Scoop it in the WSJ

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

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

By Adam Fraser

Uefa has moved a step further towards agreeing Euro 2012 broadcast rights across the whole of Europe, adding Sweden to an already extensive list of countries in which partnerships have been agreed.

Uefa has already signed partnerships with the EBU, covering 36 European countries, and with broadcasters in the host countries, Poland and Ukraine. TV4 and SVT will screen the competition, European soccer’s most prestigious, free to air in Sweden. The country’s best-ever performance in the competition came in 1992, when, as hosts, the team reached the semi-final.

Read the rest of the article

Irish commercial broadcaster TV3 has signed a €1.725m (US$2.53m) deal for Motive Television to produce 38 live UEFA Champions League and Europa Cup football matches for the channel.

The coverage will be coproduced by Dublin-based Motive and Asgard Media. The two firms already have a three-year contract with TV3 for the production of live Gaelic Athletic Association Championship football and hurling.

Read the rest of the article