October 8 – Football fan website and digital platform 90min has completed a round of fund raising that has brought in $15 million to cashflow the group’s expansion into new international markets and increase content.
By Samindra Kunti
October 6 – The ICSS and the Aspire Academy have renewed their partnership, while the French Football Federation have made a pledge for a closer cooperation with their Qatari counterpart. The agreements were announced at the Aspire Academy Global Summit on Football Performance and Science in Berlin.
By Ben Nicholson
October 6 – The MLS has added another TV deal to its expanding roster by partnering with FOX Sports Latin America to televise matches in Mexico, South America (excepting Brazil where the MLS already partners with Globosat), Central America and the Caribbean. The deal now makes the MLS available for viewing in almost 120 countries and territories worldwide.
October 5 – Mexican beer brand Tecate has added a fourth regional sponsorship with the addition of Manchester City from the English Premier League.
By Paul Nicholson
October 2 – Manchester United stormed past Chelsea this week to take second spot behind Arsenal in the table of overall Twitter followers. The Red Devils put on a massive 48,707 followers compared to the Gunners’ 26,259 and Chelsea’s meagre, in comparison, 17,769.
By Paul Nicholson
October 2 – The latest report from Benchmark Sports, the data division of consultants KPMG Sports, compares the popularity of Europe’s biggest football clubs with global fashion brands and finds that while the clubs may be the most popular, the fashion brands have the most money.
By Jamie Styles
October 2 – In what is believed be football’s first social media sacking of a top division manager, Bosnian side Drina Zvornik have fired their manager Vladica Petrovic over Facebook. If that wasn’t bizarre enough, Petrovic was apparently among the first to ‘like’ the post.
By Ben Nicholson
October 1 – The NWSL has extended its partnership with Nike through 2019, thus meaning that Nike will remain as the league’s official club kit, apparel and equipment, supplier of the league balls, and provider for all NWSL teams present and future.
By Mark Baber
September 28 – Arsenal have announced a new partnership with the Ethiopian Dashen Brewery in a deal described by Dashen’s CEO as a win for Arsenal, for the brewery and for Ethiopia.
By Samindra Kunti
September 28 – France’s Professional Football League (LFP) has extended its partnership with production company HBS (Host Broadcast Services) for a further four years.
By Paul Nicholson
September 25 – The weekly Twitter growth table saw a number of changes in ranking this week as Chelsea dropped to fourth behind Liverpool who took third slot. Manchester United continue to dominate weekly growth with one tweet this week being retweeted 14,000 times- that is 1,500 more retweets than Manchester City – in fifth place in the table – gained in new followers.
By Samindra Kunti
September 24 – Brazil and FC Barcelona star Neymar has signed new personal sponsorship deals with Gillette in Latin America and Replay.
By Tom Parsons
September 24 – Former Manchester United captain Gary Neville has agreed a deal to become a regular analyst on China’s Sina Sports network where he will link up with current pundits Carlo Ancelotti and Michael Owen.
September 22 – The arrival of South Korea international Heung-Min Son at English Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur has spurred the club’s social media team to start creating localised Korean language content across its Facebook, Instagram, Youtube and web platforms.
By Paul Nicholson
September 21 – The start of the Rugby World Cup in England has not dampened enthusiasm for Premier League soccer with the league recording the highest capacity percentage (96.07%) overall since the opening day of the season.