Celebrity Management Group which, in association with Indian Football Association, is bringing out the franchise-based football tournament said there is a big interest for the ownership of the six franchises on offer.

The ‘bid documents’ will be available between January 14 and 21 while the bids will be opened on January 22, which is also the last date of submission. In all six franchises — Kolkata, Barasat, Howrah, Haldia, Durgapur and Siliguri — are on offer for bids.

The minimum base price (yearly franchise fee) is Rs.1 crore (£125k) for Kolkata and Siliguri franchises while it is Rs.80 lakh (£100k) for Barasat. Haldia, Durgapur and Howrah will have the minimum base price of Rs.70 lakh each (£90k). The franchises will be awarded for a period of 10 years and there will be expense cap for the franchises for building their teams.

For the first PLS season the expense cap will be between $2.5 million (maximum) and $2 million (minimum) for each franchise, revealed the organiser.

Speaking at the occasion, The IFA secretary U. K.Ganguly said, “This is a first of its kind initiative for football with an objective to reach out to the fans across India through television broadcast. The mission of PLS is to foster the development of Bengal’s sporting culture and to assist in the healthy mental and physical growth of Bengali people. The goal for PLS is to develop India’s sporting culture, create new audience and raise the bar for Indian Football.”

The organiser also finalised the names of the seven former world cuppers — Fabio Cannavaro (Italy), Juan Pablo Sorin, Hernan Crespo (both Argentina),Jay Jay Okocha (Nigeria), Robert Pires (France), Robbie Fowler (England) and Fernando Morientes (Spain) — as the icon players for whom there will be a separate bidding.

The franchises will also have pick up their coaches from the eight international names announced by the organiser.

They are: Peter Reid, John Barnes, Colin Todd (all England), Samson Siasa (Nigeria), Marco Etcheverry (Bolivia), Teitur Thodarson (Canada), Milos Rus (Slovakia) and Fernando Couto (Portugal).

Source: thehindu.com

The confirmation of the deal comes follows the agreement between the two leading British free-to-air broadcasters of how they will divide up live coverage of the 31 games in the tournament. The broadcasters will each show 15 matches exclusively live, and will share live coverage of the final.

With live coverage of the European Championships finals protected for free-to-air television under the UK ‘crown jewels’ broadcast law, both BBC and ITV had already agreed in principle to show the tournament. Both will carry coverage across their mobile and internet platforms, while the BBC has also secured the live radio rights.

Guy Laurent-Epstein, the marketing director of UEFA Events SA, said: “Uefa is delighted to continue its relationship with the BBC and ITV, our traditional broadcast partners for the UEFA European Championships. We look forward to working with the UK’s leading free-to-air broadcasters and are convinced that they will provide fans in the UK with an exceptional depth of coverage of the tournament across all media platforms.”

ITV controller of sport Niall Sloane said: “Major events such as the Euro 2012 championships have huge significance for our viewers and attract some of the biggest audiences on television. I’m delighted that ITV has secured an outstanding selection of games through the tournament which includes England’s opening game against France as well as a potential peak time group decider against hosts Ukraine. ITV1 will also be the home of some terrific clashes between the top teams in Europe including Spain v Ireland, Spain v Italy, Portugal v Holland and Ireland v Croatia.”

Philip Bernie, the head of TV sport for the BBC, added: “The BBC is delighted to be showing the Uefa European Football Championship, a huge football event, which, along with the London Olympics, should ensure a fantastic sporting summer for BBC viewers. We are very happy with the live matches on BBC One, as they give us a strong climax to the event, with both semi-finals, as well as England’s quarter-final if they progress. We also have some very appetising group games, including England’s second match, against Sweden, in peak time, Ireland’s final match, against Italy, and heavyweight clashes between Holland and Germany and Germany and Portugal.”

UEFA Euro 2012 will begin on Friday 8th June, with hosts Poland taking on 2004 champions Greece at the National Stadium in Warsaw. The game will be shown live in the UK by the BBC. 

Source: Sportspromedia.com

While top club wages, bonuses, endorsement deals and TV deals continue to defy the recession, international football associations appear to have been hit in the pocket by the economic downturn.

According to separate findings by the sports marketing companies

SPORT + MARKT and PR MARKETING the FAs of Germany, England, Italy, the Netherlands, France and Spain have taken a combined hit of £6.4m a year compared to their deals enjoyed in 2010.

The 2010 deals v the 2012 are as here (story continues below):

National associations are reluctant to confirm the exact values of their sponsorship arrangements, but research by these well connected companies offer the best alternative data.

The biggest financial losers are the English FA, following the FA’s decision to accept a £5m a year deal with Vauxhall – an estimated hit of £3.6m a year on its previous headline sponsorship deal with Nationwide.

The German Football Association has lost an estimated £2.5m a year compared with its previous arrangement with Mercedes – but continues to enjoy the most lucrative deal of its kind.

From the six major deals across Europe, only the French Football Federation has enjoyed a moderate increase of £500,000 a year compared with 2010.

International sides tend to have more than one sponsor, but the headline sponsor is the most lucrative deal and the company involved tends to have its branding appear on team training kits and leisure wear, tickets, backdrops during press conferences and signs at home games and training sessions.

Dr Peter Rohlmann of PR MARKETING told Sportingintelligence: “The recession is a substantial factor for getting new sponsors at the same level as in an economic boom.

“But my experience is that the influence of sporting failure and negative affairs, for example with Italy and England, has been more important for the acquisition of new sponsorships by the football associations than the economic environment.”

The English FA is about to take a hit in the value of its domestic TV deal with ITV although foreign rights values are expected to growth to around £48m a year.

As Sportingintelligence reported in October, England’s £26m-a-year kit deal with Umbro is second only to France in the world of football in terms of high value.

Source: sportingintelligence.com

Even in the country itself, most Brazilians don’t give fermented grape juice much thought.

It is very much a beer drinking nation, lager to be specific. And served as cold as possible to refresh in the hot weather.

Yet Brazil has had a small wine industry for hundreds of years, started by the first Portuguese settlers, and then continued by Italian immigrants.

For, despite the widespread perception that Brazil has a tropical climate too hot and humid for grapes, in the far south of the country, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul that borders Uruguay, the more temperate weather is ideal for planting vineyards.

Currently exporting only very small quantities, the Brazilian wine industry has high hopes that the country’s staging of the 2014 World Cup can be used as a springboard to achieve ambitious overseas sales growth.

Speaking at the Soccerex Global Convention in Rio de Janeiro, the annual gathering of football business leaders, Ana Paula Kleinowski from Wines of Brasil, the national trade body, says the World Cup can help put Brazilian wines on the map.

“2014 is going to give Brazilian wine a tremendous promotional opportunity,” she says. “We can use it to showcase the quality and range of our wines, and drive export growth.

“Brazilian wines are the only ones available at Soccerex, which we are very proud of, and come the World Cup we intend that as many visiting football supporters as possible can easily find and try them.

“And then continue to be able to buy them when they return home.”

Good reviews

Brazil’s wine growers may be targeting the world, but they have a long way to go to catch up with fellow South American wine producers Argentina and, especially, Chile.

Last year Brazil exported just $3.3m (£2.1m) worth of wine, compared with $1.6bn from Chile.

However, the only way is up for the Brazilians, and they have recently started targeting seven countries – the US, UK, Canada, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden and Poland. In addition to Hong Kong.

In the UK, you can now buy Brazilian wines from a number of smaller wine merchants, and Ms Kleinowski says feedback from some of the UK’s best-known wine critics has been very positive.

“Jancis Robinson and Oz Clarke have both recently given Brazilian wines very good reviews, it is just a question of us getting more people to taste them.

“The quality is there, and the prices are reasonable.”

Award winning

Talking of taste, is Brazilian wine really any good?

The simple answer is a resounding yes.

The best Brazilian wine is typically made from French grape varieties, and the country produces the full range of red, white, rose, sweet, and sparkling wines.

The latter is made in exactly the same way as champagne to produce the bubbles naturally.

The reds and whites taste similar to Chilean wines, and while the fizz might lack some of champagne’s finesse, if someone gave you a bottle you’d be very happy.

Arley Firmino Pereira is winemaker at Miolo Wine Group, which was founded in Rio Grande do Sul in 1897 by an Italian family.

“We already sell our wines to one UK wine company, and it is going very well,” he says.

“Our vineyards enjoy a very nice temperature, and very good soil. This is reflected in the quality of our wines, and our 2005 merlot won a global prize for the best merlot for less than $100 in a blind tasting test.”

Mr Pereira adds that Brazil’s winemakers also have a giant domestic market to conquer, where the average Brazilian currently drinks just two litres of wine per year.

That is equivalent to what thirsty wine fans in Europe will polish off in a weekend.

Price critical

Yet if the Brazilian wine industry wishes to make a substantial breakthrough in the UK and across continental Europe, it has to crack the big supermarkets.

Wine critic Robert Joseph says it may all come down to price.

“Basically in Britain most consumers will buy any wine if it is cheap,” he says.

“So if Brazilian wine can get its prices right, and promote itself, it could be a success in the UK.

“In general they aren’t making great wine yet in Brazil, but it is OK, it is do-able.”

UK wine merchant Oddbins says that while it currently doesn’t sell any Brazilian wine it would be keen to if the demand was there from its customers.

Emma Nichols, head of buying at Oddbins, says: “Oddbins could quite happily stock Brazilian wine, but it really depends on the quality.

“Our customers are always interested experiencing new and interesting wine. But we won’t stock something simply for the novelty value – it has to taste fantastic.”

Source: bbc.co.uk

The eagerly anticipated clash to be held at Al Ahli’s Rashid Stadium is sure to be star-studded affair with the likes of Zlatan Ibrahimović and Brazilian superstars Robinho and Alexandre Pato for AC Milan, plus Javier Pastore, Jérémy Ménez and Kevin Gameiro for PSG likely to be on show.

If that wasn’t enough the fixture also throws up the mouth-watering prospect of both David Beckham and Carlos Tevez making their debuts for PSG and Milan respectively should their rumoured moves be completed in the coming weeks.

Beckham, 36, has been heavily linked with a move to PSG in recent months and is said to be close to penning a lucrative 18-month deal at the Parc des Princes, while Milan yesterday confirmed they have been given permission by Manchester City to talk to wantaway star Carlos Tevez.

Another intriguing sub-plot should Beckham seal his switch to the ‘City of Light’ would see the former England captain come up against the club he enjoyed two three-month loan spells with in 2009 and 2010, the last of which under the guidance of Leonardo, PSG’s current sporting director.

Dubai promotion

The Dubai Football Challenge will be the culmination of Milan’s annual Emirates-sponsored winter training camp, which will see the 18-time Serie A champions make the most of Dubai’s fantastic weather and training facilities as they did 12 months ago.

PSG, who are also sponsored by Emirates, will jet into the UAE to step up their preparations for the season’s resumption on January 14 following Ligue 1′s enforced winter break which gets underway on December 22.

Hamad Mohammad Bin Mejren, Executive Director Business Tourism at DTCM, said: “We are looking forward to a successful fourth edition of the Dubai Football Challenge with two great teams like AC Milan and Paris Saint-Germain.

“As part of The Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing strategies to promote Dubai, this event will contribute to positioning Dubai as a leading tourism and sport destination and stimulate visitors from key targeted markets around the world.”

Ahmad Khoory, Emirates Senior Vice President for the Gulf, Middle East and Iran, said: “As the shirt sponsor of both AC Milan and PSG, it is a real coup for us to bring these two world-class teams to Dubai.

“Emirates is involved with football sponsorships around the globe so being able to offer fans in the UAE the chance to experience top-class international teams up close is an excellent way of leveraging our sponsorship benefits.”

Source: sport360.com

It is a significant achievement for the club as Asia, particularly China, represents a real opportunity in economic terms.

Successfully marketing the AC Milan brand into Asia is critical. Much like it was during the Age of Imperialism, though this time in a much more cordial fashion, most major European clubs are seeking financially rewarding ventures into Asia with the aim of securing a piece of the market share.

With the Eurozone crisis and the fiscal deterioration of the United States, Asia is where new money can be found. This has been known for some time but events ever since the GFC in 2008 and have only made this clearer.

Populations are rising across the region, and as with China, many Asian countries are seeing a rapid increase in the number of middle class citizens, who are the consumers driving their economic growth.

But, even more significant than the award are the numbers that were revealed in regard to Milan’s Chinese success.

The China market accounts for 18 per cent of Adidas Milan’s total business. Milan products sold in China make up 37 per cent of the top clubs sponsored by the German brand, which makes the club number one. An impressive feat considering clubs like Bayern Munich, Chelsea and Real Madrid also wear Adidas equipment.

But, perhaps best of all, it was said that a recent survey conducted by Titan Sports showed that Milan are the best supported foreign club in China with 31 per cent of the local market, ahead of the likes of Barcelona and Manchester United who have long been regarded as the biggest brand in the East.

Not to sound propagandist, but, it shows the great work Milan have been doing in ensuring the economic future of the club by capitalizing on the great brand that is AC Milan.

What has been achieved has not only been the work of AC Milan, but, of the FIGC too who played their role in taking the Italian Super Cup to China this year.

Looking again at some numbers proves that this was a highly successful ploy with the TIM Super Cup being watched by an estimated 72 million viewers in China along and 300 million worldwide. It remains the most watched sporting event in China this year.

The club has also established a Milan School in Hong Kong while there are talks of establishing formal links with two local clubs.

Such developments, which are already proving successful, bode well for the future of AC Milan. It is the Asian century after all and the clubs that will reap the greatest benefits from the region are those that establish themselves within it in the early stages, which is what Milan is doing.

Source: acmilanblog.net

The announcement sees Juventus confirm their first ever deal with a company from the pneumatics sector, while Goodyear make their debut in the world of football.

“This new partnership develops a research strategy of high-profile commercial agreements,” underlined Juventus President Andrea Agnelli. “We’re extremely satisfied at the choice that Goodyear have made, returning after years in the sporting world and first time in football to identify Juventus as a trustworthy, valuable single partner. Juventus are certain of the strategic importance of the link which begins with this signature. This will undoubtedly develop in a worthwhile way throughout the course of the football season,  and with reciprocal satisfaction.”

Andrea Agnelli was present for the signing of the contract alongside the President and Managing Director of Goodyear Dunlop Tires Italia, Luca Crepaccoli, who reiterated that the partnership with Juventus signals:  “Another important step in our communication strategy and will contribute to giving the company further coverage and prestige. Sponsoring such a top-quality football team allows us to strengthen the interaction with all drivers, also offering new entertainment opportunities to our clients. Thanks to this partnership, we’ll further bolster  the already close link with the Fiat Group, of which Goodyear is already the supplier of pneumatics that comply with carbon savings and different car models, including the new Fiat 500 and Lancia New Ypsilon.”

The two companies, both founded at the end of the 1800s (Juventus 1897, Goodyear 1898), also have renovation projects in common which will further reinforce their image and prestige, working alongside each other not just on the pitch, but also socially through educational projects linked to road safety.

Source: Juventus

With a UEFA Champions League winners’ medal on the line, Ibra now goes head-to-head with the team he once called his own. 

Check out Ibra’s Nike Sportswear Bespoke Destroyer jacket, inspired by his own iconic tattoos.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIpdnmKGDgk

“Why always me?” – well, Mario, maybe it’s because you’re a bit of an eejit!

In Italy’s 1-0 defeat at the hands of Uruguay, the City star appeared for the second half of the game wearing the Azzurri’s old shirt, rather than the swanky brand new one which had been unveiled in the run-up to this game, and which he had worn for the first-half.

Only after a stoppage, when the striker was booked for a foul on Diego Perez, were the Italian staff able to get the striker to change his top.

Is there no end to the Madness of King Mario?

Watch his foul and shirt-swap here…

www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBjJPlP4djk

Source: Whoateallthepies.tv

The new kit was premiered last Friday when “los charruas” defeated Chile by 4 goals for the FIFA 2014 CONMEBOL qualification round, something to remark, all 4 goals were scored by the international sensation Luis Suarez (Liverpool).

The new home soccer jersey keeps its traditional sky blue color (“Celeste”) with white details on it. The white Puma logo is on the center at the chest area, on the right side close to the shoulder area a darker sky-diagonal blue band with a watermarked sun inside of it. On the left hand side Uruguay’s national badge with its four stars inside of it. The shirt has a white round collar neck with the national flag embroidered inside of it, and the word Uruguay placed on the back, just below the neck area. It has plain sky-blue sleeves with the white Puma logo on its sides and white hems.

Do you like this soccer jersey? Please rate Note: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it.