May 17 – CONCACAF has secured another cornerstone broadcast partner for its blue riband Gold Cup and Champions League competitions. Canadian sports network TSN has signed a multi-year rights deal for Canada that begins with the upcoming Gold Cup this July.
May 16 – The International Champions Cup are having a second shot at staging the first ever Manchester derby outside Manchester. This time the US organisers are looking to play the game at the NRG Stadium in Houston Texas.
May 16 – Newly promoted Newcastle United are swapping shirt sponsors with pay day loans company Wonga making way for online bookmaker and casino FUN88 in a three-year deal.
May 12 – TEAM Marketing has doubled broadcast revenue from France for the Champions League and Europa League to €350 million for the 2018-21 seasons. The new money comes with a new broadcaster. Telecoms giant SFR takes over from Canal + and BeIN Sports who were paying a combined €140 million.
May 12 – Premier League Everton have cleared the way for the announcement of a new shirt sponsor after the club unveiled current sponsor Chang was shifting over to a new three-year community partnership.
May 9 – Arsenal surged closer to matching Manchester United’s weekly Twitter growth this week with 52,000 new followers compared to Manchester United’s 59,500 – a timely gain matched with a rare win against them in the league. Just as Man Utd’s players are fatiguing after a long season, is the phenomenal growth rate on Twitter doing the same?
May 7 – On the eve of the week of their Congress in Bahrain FIFA have signed a new airline sponsor. Qatar Airways becomes Official Partner and the Official Airline of FIFA in a sponsorship deal that will take through to 2022 when their home country hosts the World Cup.
May 5 – The English Football Association is mulling over ending its commercial ties with betting and alcohol firms at the end of the season, says chairman Greg Clarke.
By Samindra Kunti
May 5 – Telenet and VOO have retained the TV rights to broadcast the Belgian top flight league for the next three seasons. The Belgian clubs will net €75 million per season.
May 5 – Manchester City has added power management company Eaton as the club’s Official Home Energy Storage Partner in the UK. No figure was announced for the sponsorship which was described as a multi-year deal (usually three years).
May 4 – Tottenham Hotspur have released their SPVRS app for iOS and Android devices that takes users on a tour of the club’s currently being constructed new stadium using Virtual and Augmented Reality technology.
May 4 – No sooner had Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho bemoaned a packed fixture schedule as the club battle to close its season out with a Champions League qualifying place, than the club triumphantly announce a sixth pre-season friendly, against Norway’s Valerenga on July 30.
May 3 – Olympique Marseilles has hired one of the world’s leading advertising and marketing agencies, McCANN France, to carry out a club rebranding, develop a communications strategy and lead the ticket marketing effort for the 2017-18 season.
May 1 – The timing could perhaps have been better with Joey Barton having just received an 18-month ban for betting on football matches, but the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) is poised to announce an extension of its naming rights sponsorship with bookmaker Ladbrokes.
May 1 – The expanded CONCACAF club competitions, including the Champions League, have signed their first major broadcast deal for the new format with FOX Sports Latin America. The five-year deal renews Fox’s existing broadcast deal from 2017/18 to the end of the 2021/2022 season.