October 16 – The UAE Pro League Committee (PLC) has engaged sports data and technology company Sportradar to collect and build stats-based content with the objective of building the fan base for the league in the country.
October 16 – Facebook have one, Netflix announced they are making one, and now Amazon Prime are joining the US OTT broadcast entry into fly-on-the-wall football docuseries with a Manchester City biopic.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 13 – In a stunning twist to their anti-corruption football probe, Swiss federal prosecutors have opened a criminal case against the Qatari boss of Paris St Germain, Nasser Al-Khelaifi, for suspected bribery linked to World Cup broadcasting rights.
October 13 – Viewing figures for Premier League football in the UK are showing a rebound in interest from the start of the season, after summer data showed that viewing figures for Sky’s Premier League coverage had slumped to their lowest point in seven years last season.
By Mark Baber
October 12 – Nike and the Portuguese Football Federation have extended their long-term partnership until 2024. No value was announced for the deal.
October 12 – Sports agency IMG has won the international TV sales rights to Italy’s Serie A in a three-year deal reportedly worth €371 million per season. The price marks a doubling of the value of the Italian overseas rights as well as a switch in agency.
October 12 – You can tell that a country is getting serious about football when a beer company launches a special brew for the club’s fans.
October 11 – Netflix have entered the European football documentary market announcing a fly-on-the-wall series with Italian champions Juventus that will debut on the streaming service in 2018.
October 11 – Arsenal have turned their in-game license agreement with video game PES (Pro Evolution Soccer) into an official partnership with the game’s maker Konami Digital Entertainment.
October 10 – Spain’s LaLiga has added another top tier sponsor partner for the Spanish market. El Corte Inglés has signed a one-year deal for LaLiga’s top two divisions.
October 10 – The fast-growing second tier of US professional football (soccer), the USL, has set a new league record surpassing the 2 million attendance milestone for 2017 as the season enters the final round of matches before the play-offs.
By Paul Nicholson
October 9 – Expectations that Facebook will be the next premium tier sports rights buyer that pushes broadcast fees into the next level financial stratosphere are likely premature. While the global social media giant has plenty of cash and bandwidth, it is its bandwidth it is selling and not its cash it is spending.
October 6 – The French Football Federation (FFF) has upgraded its deal with Orange who become a major sponsor of the national mens and womens teams in a four-year deal staring in 2018.
By Mark Baber
October 6 – Free Tibet have launched a campaign to press Liverpool FC to terminate a controversial sponsorship deal signed with Chinese water bottling company Tibet Water Resources Limited.
October 6 – England may have qualified for next year’s World Cup finals but that should fool no-one and their chances of success are next to nil judging by reaction to the last-gasp win over Slovakia that sealed their place in Russia.