February 5 – Major League Soccer (MLS) has again extended the deadline for negotiating a new pay deal with its players union. The Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) with the MLS Players Association (MLSPA) has to be in place before the start of the new season in the Spring.
February 5 – France’s professional leagues have been handed a badly needed lifeline to help them over their broadcast rights crisis after Ligue 1 reached an agreement with Canal Plus to screen the remainder of matches this season following the spectacular collapse of a record contract with Mediapro.
February 5 – Brazil’s Fluminense have agreed a sponsorship with online gaming operator Betmotion that will see its logo on the club’s shirt in what is described as a ‘chest seal’ (see picture).
February 4 – The British government has threatened social media companies with fines which could amount to “billions of pounds” if they fail to tackle abuse of footballers on their platforms.
February 4 – UEFA has renewed Japanese manufacturer Molten Corporation as the official match ball supplier for its Europa League. Molten will also pick up rights to the new Europa Conference League that kicks off in July.
February 4 – Electronic Arts (EA) has renewed is exclusive license with UEFA for its Champions League and Europa League video games, keeping both competitions on the FIFA platform.
February 3 – Greece-based Vermantia, which offers content to lotteries, gaming and betting operators, has added a new Virtual Football League igaming product to its portfolio.
By Samindra Kunti
February 2 – The TV rights crisis in French football is deepening after a new tender for Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 looks to have flopped with bids below what the league and clubs had expected.
February 2 – Burnley are the latest Premier League club to face problems with a betting partner. Shirt sponsor LoveBet have reportedly hit financial difficulty mirroring issues SportPesa ran into, forcing it to pull out of Everton’s sponsorship before the start of the season.
February 1 – Portugal’s Primeira Liga is to centralise its domestic broadcast rights from 2027/28, forming a company with the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) to sell media rights.
January 29 – Barcelona, Cristiano Ronaldo and the Premier League are the most popular football brands in China’s digital media, but a newly launched David Beckham platform shows there is still power in the old warhorse’s name.
January 29 – Manchester City, who returned to top of the Premier League this week, are firing on all cylinders off the pitch as well with another sponsorship announcement indicating the leverage the club’s owner City Football Group brings in terms of opening up sponsorship budgets to its club assets.
January 27 – Premier League broadcast rights partner NBC, is shutting its Sports Network in the US and is expected to close operations by the end of 2021.
January 27 – Premier League Manchester City have gone ownership local with a new partnership with life insurer Zurich International Life, who will become the Club’s Official Insurance Partner in the United Arab Emirates, the country of the club’s owner.
January 25 – The AFC has renewed and expanded its deal with video game maker Konami Digital Entertainment across national team and club competitions for the 2021-2024 rights cycle.