September 1 – Swiss watchmaker Tag Heuer has expanded its sponsorship portfolio into Asia agreeing a four-year deal with the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). It will become the Official Timekeeper & Official Watch of the AFC’s national competitions including the 2018 FIFA World Cup Asian Qualifiers Final Round (that starts tonight), the 2018 AFC Women’s Asian Cup and the AFC Asian Cup in 2019.
September 1 – Manchester City has expanded its regional sponsorship agreeing an ‘Official Beer Partner’ deal with Nigeria’s Star brand, owned by Nigerian Breweries.
August 31 – Manchester United’s rate of Twitter growth slowed last week against the previous week, from 85,000 new followers to 70,500. In contrast Manchester City grew their weekly new followers to 22,100 and can be expected to grow again on the back of exciting Premier League performances.
August 31 – The Brazilian FA, the CBF, and Japanese video games maker Konami have struck a two-year partnership deal for the Pro Evolution Soccer video game.
August 30 – Los Angeles’s new MLS franchise LAFC will kick off with a $100 million naming rights sponsor for its $350 million new stadium. The 15-year deal with Banc of California is a record naming rights deal for soccer in the US.
August 25 – Manchester Utd stretched their lead over Arsenal at the top of the Premier League Twitter followers ranking by more than 38,000 followers last week. Their additional 85,700 followers was more than double that of third placed Chelsea, almost triple fourth placed Liverpool, and more than fives times local rivals Man City.
August 25 – Bayern Munich have launched their new apps for the 2016/17 season. The German giants have been increasingly embracing digital platforms and recently launched their season on their Facebook platform rather than via a more traditional TV broadcast based media day.
August 24 – Premier League West Ham United have extended their main sponsorship with online bookmaker Betway for a further three years in what the club says is the largest sponsorship in its history.
August 24 – Chinese broadcaster LeSports is testing the pay-per-view model on broadcasts of some of Italy’s Serie A matches in China.
By David Owen
August 23 – Football has emerged with the gold medal in the Twitter Olympics, with Neymar Junior’s decisive spot-kick in the penalty shoot-out against Germany generating more Tweets per minute than any other piece of Rio 2016 sporting action.
By Paul Nicholson
August 23 – West Ham topped the attendance chart for Round 2 of the Premier League season in the first league fixture at their new 60,000 all-seat stadium. Well, almost all-seat.
August 22 – Thai broadcaster Bangkok Broadcasting & TV Co. (BBTV) has extended its deal with the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for exclusive terrestrial broadcast rights from 2017 to 202 for AFC competitions.
August 19 – Inter Milan has signed a one-year partnership with HotelPlanner for the 2016/17 season, making the online booking service the club’s Official Hotel Reservations Partner.
August 18 – Online sportsbook Tempobet has increased its Premier League sponsorship portfolio with a deal to become a partner of newly-promoted Middlesbrough. The company is already a regional partner of Manchester City.
By Paul Nicholson
August 17 – What a difference a year makes in the Premier League Twitter world. Both Arsenal and Chelsea had more followers than Manchester United at start of last year but now the Manchester giants have taken a substantial lead.