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FB Headlines - February 2021 asset

Football Business Headlines – February 2021

The Football Business Headlines – February 22nd, 2021

 

SPONSORSHIP AND PARTNERSHIP

German Bundesliga club VfL Wolfsburg has agreed on a long-term collaboration with Filipino company Hua Ti Hui (HTH) to become one of the club’s International Premium Partners. The two brands will work on joint fan activations in China and HTH will be represented on the international advertising board during matches at the Volkswagen Arena. (Source)

 

Serie A club AS Roma has announced American sports apparel brand New Balance as its official club kit supplier from the 2021-22 season onwards. Roma is the first Italian club to wear kits made by the Boston-based brand. The partnership was announced via an innovative augmented reality game on Instagram. (Source)

 

The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) has reached a commercial agreement with MEDIAPRO group for the international marketing of media rights to the most prominent competitions organized by CONCACAF. The alliance with MEDIAPRO group will provide CONCACAF with international commercialization of the audio-visual rights of its competitions. (Source)

“This is a very important year for our Confederation and we are very excited to have signed a new international rights agreement with MEDIAPRO Group. They have a significant global reach and will help us ensure that our 2021 Gold Cup and other major national team competitions are available to fans across the region and globally” – Philippe Maggio, Secretary-General, CONCACAF

 

ESPORTS

British broadcaster BBC has announced a partnership with video game developer EA Sports that will see the FIFA 21 Global Series European Regional Qualifiers being aired through its platforms. The qualifiers and playoffs of the tournament will be shown on the BBC iPlayer, BBC Sport’s website, and app. (Source)

 

WOMEN’S FOOTBALL

FIFA has announced the appointment of two Chief Operation Officers (COOs) for the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 in Australia and New Zealand. Jane Fernandez has been appointed as the COO for Australia and Jane Patterson is the COO for New Zealand. The newly appointed COOs will oversee the operational aspects of the 2023 Women’s World Cup. (Source)

 

American National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) expansion team Angel City FC has brought in online delivery service DoorDash to become its principal jersey sponsor. To mark the partnership, DoorDash will donate $5 for each order placed on February 18th to local restaurants owned or led by women and the two brands will also work to address the food insecurities in the Los Angeles area. (Source)

“I’ve always loved the ability of sports to connect communities and make a positive impact.  This partnership will uniquely merge food, sport and culture as we work together to give back to the Los Angeles community we serve and level the playing field for all.” – Tony Xu, CEO and co-founder, DoorDash 

 

The 2021 SheBelieves Cup, presented by VISA, will be broadcasted to a record 27 countries outside of the United States. U.S Soccer’s commercial partner and representative, Soccer United Marketing, facilitated the international media rights with IMG. This is the first time that the tournament is being broadcasted across a wide market including countries like Brazil, Canada, Portugal, Spain, and many more. (Source)

 

INNOVATIONS AND NEW TRENDS

English Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur announced the renewal of an exclusive long-term partnership with ticketing technologies company Ticketmaster Sport. Ticketmaster Sport will become the club’s Official Ticketing Innovation Supplier. In a first-of-its-kind partnership, the two entities will collaborate on a co-innovation partnership to drive technological advancements for the sports industry. The new system has been designed to help protect supporter’s health and safety and the solution will involve the use of a suite of tools designed by Ticketmaster Sport keeping factors like social distancing and other logistics in mind. (Source)

“This new agreement will see us look to take the traditional ticketing model to a new level as we strive to deliver the best experience for our supporters and utilise cutting-edge technology for all visitors to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.” – Ian Murphy, Head of Ticketing, Tottenham Hotspur

 

The Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) launched a new store on the global e-commerce platform Amazon. Official products of the Portuguese national team will now be easily accessible to millions of fans around the world in the markets covered by Amazon. (Source)

 

LAW, STAKEHOLDER GOVERNANCE AND FINANCE

The South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) proposed the creation of a friendly tournament between the U21 national teams as a part of its commitment to promote youth development. The friendly tournament will be called ‘CONMEBOL Evolución Sub 21and will take place in parallel to the South American Qualifiers for the Qatar 2022 World Cup. CONMEBOL will contribute USD 30,000 to each Member Association, to cover all transportation and logistics expenses for the youth to the countries where they will play the matches. (Source)

 

The Deutsche Fußball Liga (DFL), English Premier League (EPL), Football Association of Serbia (FSS), Football Association of Czech Republic (FACR), French Football League (LFP), and Scottish Football Association (SFA) will participate in the international EU project TRANSFER (Transnational Football Exchange and Role-Sharing). The aim of the project is to enhance and improve the work of supporter liaison officers and safety and security officers at clubs, national associations, and leagues. The project is co-funded by the European Union and UEFA. 

The project aims to achieve the following targets and effects:

  • Improved matchday operations benefiting clubs and football supporters across Europe.
  • The more structured implementation of regular exchanges in SLO education in the participating countries and beyond.
  • Increased awareness of an integrated approach to safety, security, and service at football matches. (Source)

 

The Football Business Headlines – February 15th, 2021

SPONSORSHIP AND PARTNERSHIP

The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) announced video sharing social network service TikTok as an official partner of the UEFA Euro 2020. This marks the first time a digital entertainment platform has sponsored a major international tournament for UEFA. TikTok will work with UEFA to create AR effects, hashtag challenges, TikTok LIVEs and sounds in order to promote the tournament, and the entertainment platform will also get broadcast sponsorship rights. (Source)

 

ELEVEN Portugal has renewed its partnership with French top tier competition Ligue 1 Uber Eats for three more seasons until 2023/24. In addition to the top tier competition, ELEVEN will also deliver The Trophee des Champions to fans in Portugal. (Source)

 

German 2. Bundesliga club Hamburger SV and Scottish club Rangers FC have entered into a wide-ranging official partnership. A number of initiatives have been planned as part of the official collaboration like offers at both the respective home stadiums for the visiting fans of each other, a ‘Fan Talks’ program with representatives from both fanbases, activities between the academies, and commercial ventures. (Source)

 

ESPORTS

French Ligue 1 club AS Monaco has announced a partnership with Gambit Esports, owned by Russian telecommunications service Mobile TeleSystems (MTS). The two clubs will launch the AS Monaco Gambit team which will play in Fortnite and Dota 2 tournaments. (Source)

“We are delighted to launch this partnership with Gambit Esports. The creation of our joint team, AS Monaco Gambit, allows us to take a new step in this sector by joining forces with a reference on the international Esports scene.” – Oleg Petrov, Vice-President and CEO, AS Monaco

“With the creation of the AS Monaco Gambit team, we become the first Russian Esports club to establish a relationship with a foreign team. This is a great opportunity to develop our activities.” – Irina Semyonova, Head of the MTS Esports Department

 

Major League Soccer (MLS) team Los Angeles FC’s LAFC Gaming announced a first of a kind partnership with McDonald’s Southern California franchises, making the restaurant brand the Official Marketing Partner of LAFC Gaming with the 2021 eMLS tournament. McDonald’s will serve as the presenting partner for the MLS club’s brand-new state-of-the-art gaming room. (Source)

 

WOMEN’S FOOTBALL

English Premier League (EPL) club Burnley FC outlined its long-term intention to professionalize women’s football. Burnley FC Women will be amalgamated with Burnley FC and its operation will be fully integrated into the football club with the aim of increasing the team’s presence, infrastructure, and investment. Investment including the creation of a Women’s Academy is planned and the team in the future will share the club’s training facilities with the men’s team. (Source)

“Burnley FC is an inclusive club for all, and today’s announcement signals our intent to put women’s football at the very heart of it. Over the coming seasons we will fully support and invest in our new women’s football strategy, with the ambition to gain promotion to the FA Women’s Championship within four years and ultimately become a full-time professional outfit.”Alan Pace, Chairman of Burnley FC

 

INNOVATIONS AND NEW TRENDS

Serie A giants AC Milan announced the launch of ‘The Studios: AC Milan Media House’, a new innovative, self-owned media hub for the club that will centralize the creation, production, and distribution of all of the club’s audio-visual content. The media house is equipped with cutting edge technology including 4k cameras and LCD-LED displays. (Source)

 

Italian professional football club AS Roma announced a strategic partnership with AIM Sport which will allow the introduction of the Digital Overlay technology at the club’s home stadium, Stadio Olimpico. The new technology will allow the club’s sponsors to digitally present their content onto the pitchside signage at the stadium and adapt the messages to target different geographical locations. (Source)

 

LAW, STAKEHOLDER GOVERNANCE AND FINANCE

 The English Premier League (EPL) has launched a ‘No Room for Racism’ Action Plan. A series of commitments aimed at creating greater access to opportunities and career progression for Black, Asian and other minority ethnic groups in football and actions to eradicate racial prejudice have been outlined. The Action Plan details 6 commitments and has been closely co-ordinated with ‘The Football Leadership Diversity Code’. (Source)

 

 

The Football Business Headlines – February 8th, 2021

SPONSORSHIP AND PARTNERSHIP

Chelsea Football Club has signed an agreement with The Football Business Academy partners Horizm. The deal will enable the Premier League club to identify new digital revenues through Horizm’s artificial intelligence-powered platform. (Source)

 

The South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) and MG Motor (Morris Garages) have reached an agreement that will see the automotive company become the new official sponsor of the CONMEBOL Sudamericana. The agreement runs for two seasons until 2022. (Source)

“It is a pride to have the support of a recognized international brand in the automotive sector such as MG Motor. We believe that their trust and commitment to South American football responds to the excellent moment that this sport is experiencing in the continent, both at a sporting level and in terms of management, as well as its projection and growth in the coming years” – José Astigarraga, Secretary General, CONMEBOL.

 

LaLiga giants Atletico de Madrid has announced AYX (Ai You Xi), a sports data and entertainment company, as the club’s official regional partner in Asia until 2023. AYX’s portfolio includes providing its users with diversified gaming experiences. (Source)

 

ESPORTS

Brazilian Série A club Sao Paulo announced the creation of an official eSports team. The team will participate in eGol, a tournament of efootball game PES 2021 organized between Konami and Group Globo. (Source)

 

WOMEN’S FOOTBALL

Women in Football (WIF) launched the WIF Corporate Membership program with the aim to drive forward gender diversity and make ‘change from within’ across the football industry. The membership will provide access to a unique range of top-level services like assessing organizational culture, fostering inclusive team dynamics, supporting the female workforce with group coaching, and mentoring and leadership courses. Premier League club Brighton & Hove Albion FC has become the first official Corporate Member of WIF. (Source)

“By becoming our first Corporate Member, Brighton’s commitment to our work and gender diversity is clear. We look forward to sharing our unique experiences and knowledge with them to drive change so that the football industry is truly inclusive for all.” – Jane Purdon, CEO, Women in Football. 

“We are thrilled to be furthering our support for Women in Football. They are consistently breaking down barriers and providing a voice for women who want to pursue or who are pursuing a career in football, on or off the pitch.” – Rose Read, Head of People and Culture, Brighton & Hove Albion FC

 

INNOVATIONS AND NEW TRENDS

Bundesliga record champions FC Bayern Munich are teaming up with streaming platform Amazon Prime Video for an exclusive documentary series. The series will focus on the club’s historic previous season treble last season, training sessions, road trips, and other exclusive in-depth behind-the-scenes access. The documentary will be aired exclusively on Amazon Prime in the autumn. (Source)

 

LAW, STAKEHOLDER GOVERNANCE AND FINANCE

The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Football Association (CONCACAF) will implement a groundbreaking new format for its flagship competition, the CONCACAF Champions League. From 2023, a regionalized group stage will be introduced. The competition will include four groups of North American clubs, four groups of Central American clubs, and two groups of Caribbean clubs. As a part of the revamp, CONCACAF will also work with its member associations in Central America and the Caribbean to launch two new cup competitions: A Central American cup and a Caribbean cup. (Source)

 

The International Olympic Committee (IOC), the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and the Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee (Tokyo 2020) published the first playbook, a resource that outlines the personal responsibilities key stakeholders must take to deliver a safe and successful Olympic and Paralympic game this summer. The first of this series of playbooks is aimed at International Federations and Technical Officials and in the coming days, guidelines for athletes, media, and broadcasters will be published. A full version of the playbook can be downloaded by clicking here.

 

STADIUM OPERATIONS & FAN ENGAGEMENT 

Major League Soccer (MLS) club Philadelphia Union unveiled a second jersey for the 2021 season which is fully designed by their fans. The club engaged its fans on social media platform Twitter two years ago and brought together 20 people who came interested into a collective to create a jersey for the club. The initiative was well received by the club’s kit suppliers Adidas and got a massive response from the fans. (Source)

 

The Football Business Headlines – February 1st, 2021

 

SPONSORSHIP AND PARTNERSHIP

City Football Group has announced an expansion of its partnership with global home appliance company Media. The expansion of the partnership will see Media broadening their sponsorship to the Manchester City Women’s team and New York City FC. More global, regional, and localized digital campaigns with both the men’s and women’s teams at Manchester City will be created. (Source)

 

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and Konami Digital Entertainment Co., Ltd has announced an expanded partnership renewal for the upcoming four-year rights circle that includes both global sponsorships and licensing rights for both AFC national and club team competitions. With the expanded partnership, fans will now be able to play the AFC Asian Cup and AFC Asian Qualifiers in future editions of Pro Evolution Soccer Games. (Source)

“Football in Asia has been growing and is becoming more important on a global scale. We look forward to working with the AFC to continue to promote Asia’s football to the world.” – Hideki Hayakawa, President of Konami Digital Entertainment Co., Ltd.,

 

Spanish club RCD Mallorca has welcomed Alua Hotels & Resorts as an official club partner. The partnership sees the US-based hospitality chain become the official shirt sponsor of the club in addition to the stadium and website advertisement. (Source)

 

ESPORTS

David Beckham’s Guild Esports has announced gaming gear brand HyperX as its Official Peripherals Partner. HyperX will fully kit all of Guild’s players, coaches, and content creators and also will be supplying all the peripherals for the Guild Academy. (Source)

 

English Football League Championship club Rotherham United’s Rotherham United Esports has been awarded a grant to open an esports school. The grant comes from the National Lottery Awards for All Charity Initiative scheme, an initiative aimed at tackling physical and mental health problems caused by Covid-19 through the use of esports and gaming. The project will offer coaching, particularly in the FIFA game platform. (Source)

 

WOMEN’S FOOTBALL

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has announced that the AFC Women’s Asia Cup 2022 will take place between January 20th to February 6th of 2022. The tournament will also serve as the qualifiers for the cross-Confederation FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023, which will see 5 teams from Asia join the tournament. (Source)

“India has seen incredible growth in recent years, in both the men’s and women’s game and we are confident that the AFC Women’s Asian Cup India 2022 will present another historic step in the incredible journey of Indian football – one that will strengthen the passion for the game and leave a lasting impact for future generations of women footballers and passionate fans.” – Dato’ Windsor John, AFC General Secretary 

 

INNOVATIONS AND NEW TRENDS

Serie A club AS Roma announced the opening of its latest international academy in New York. The first official academy of the club in North America will offer boys and girls from age between five and seventeen a chance to learn from the same coaching practices used by the club at home. (Source)

 

Nike’s Jordan brand and Ligue 1 giants Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) has collaborated once again to release a fourth kit resembling the famous elephant print created for the Nike Air Jordan III. The full collection features a new ‘Paris’ repeating graphic inspired by type from space shuttles. The PSG 2020-21 fourth kit collection includes a complete range of training and lifestyle products. (Source)

 

LAW, STAKEHOLDER GOVERNANCE AND FINANCE

FIFA has launched the “FIFA Professional Football Landscape’, its first-ever digital platform database comprising of key facts and figures on players, clubs, transfers, and top-tier competitions across all its 211 member associations. The innovation is in line with FIFA’s objectives of promoting football development around the globe and making the game global. Key facts and figures currently are:

  • 130,000 professional players and 4,400 professional clubs globally.
  • 91% of the member associations have a national club licensing system.
  • 88% of competition organizers negotiate TV rights deals collectively. (Source)

 

Premier League club Leeds United and American National Football League team San Francisco 49ers announced a new investment by an entity affiliated with the 49ers, bringing the total minority ownership stake in Leeds United managed by the 49er’s enterprise to 37%. As part of the new investment, Paraag Marathe, the 49ers President will become the Vice Chairman of the premier league club. (Source)

 

Anglo-American multinational professional services network Deloitte released the 24th edition of Deloitte Football Money League (DFML), Deloitte’s annual publication profiling the financial performance of the highest revenue generating clubs every year. FC Barcelona led the top of the chart with Real Madrid FC coming a close second and FC Bayern Munich taking the third spot. Key findings of the 24th edition is:

  • The top 20 clubs generated a combined €8.2 billion in 2019/20, down 12% on the prior season (€9.3 billion).
  • This year’s Money League clubs will have missed out on over €2 billion in revenue by the end of the 2020/21 season, including amounts foregone in respect of 2019/20, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The full report can be downloaded by clicking here.

 

The South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) Council approved an increase of USD 11,760,000 in the total amount of prizes to be distributed in the 2021 South American CONMEBOL. The amount represents an increase of 25% distributed in the previous edition of the tournament and more clubs will benefit from this increase of prize money. (Source)

 

STADIUM DEVELOPMENT & FAN ENGAGEMENT

Major League Soccer (MLS) club DC United broke ground on its new training facility in Leesburg, Va. The facility is located on a 30-acre complex that will include a 40,000 square foot training center, four full-size outdoor practice fields and an elite training center equipped with a weight room and recovery facilities for the club’s performance and medical staff. (Source)

“The substantial investment in soccer infrastructure that we have made the last few years – building Audi Field, forming Loudoun United FC, increasing funding to our academy, and now developing a new state-of-the-art training facility – demonstrates our commitment to contributing to the powerful growth of our sport in the DMV,” – Jason Levien, CEO and Co-Chairman, DC United

 

About The Football Business Academy Master Degree in Football Business

The Football Business Academy is a Swiss-based high level international educational institution whose goal is to professionalize the management of the football industry and facilitate the insertion of qualified professionals and future leaders in the game. Its flagship program, a Professional Master in Football Business, was codeveloped with international football industry experts from around the world around one foremost objective: to provide Candidates with all the necessary tools and an optimal learning environment in order to succeed in this passionate and dynamic industry.