Shirt Sponsorship Deals in English Premier League Football

Money means power and that power rules everywhere! These days, the size of a club is a great indicator of its financial muscle power. The growing ambition of the clubs is not only limited to accomplishment in the on-pitch competitions but can also be sensed right in the boardroom. In this article, we will discuss about some recent and staggering shirt sponsorship deals by the Premier League sides as well as increase in income due to such deals in the most popular European leagues. Let us start with the Premier League title defender Chelsea.

They agreed a 5-year shirt sponsorship deal worth £200m with Japanese giants Yokohama Rubber last year. It needs to be put here that the Blues won the Premier League crown during 2014/15 season under then manager Jose Mourinho. Manchester United is a high-spending club and cannot be far behind. They had a £53 million deal signed with car company Chevrolet in 2013. It is a 7-year contract with the American company.

Arsenal has already a deal with Emirates, which also includes naming rights of their stadium. Their home ground is now known as the Emirates Stadium. The figures of these deals clearly show that English Premier League football is now flooded with money from the foreign investors.

Shirt Sponsorship Deals – A Comparative Study  

If we consider 20 Premier League sides, the total amount of such deals will be £220 million/year. Let us now do some comparison with other leagues. There are 18 clubs in German Premier League or Bundesliga. Their total deal amounts to around £101 million/year and the figure is less than half of what the clubs in the English Premier League receive.

REPUCOM.NET is known for their coverage of commercial aspect of sports industry. They have monitored and researched on the shirt sponsorship deals across top 6 leagues in Europe. According to their recent survey, foreign investment in form of these deals in the top leagues has jumped by 20%. It has increased most in English and Spain leagues – in the region of 30% since the last term.

The clubs in the top 6 European Leagues generated €687 million from the sponsorship deals for jersey. It was a sharp 20% increase from €570 million that was generated during 2013/14 season. The biggest increase took place in English Premier League football as it has increased by 36% than what they received last season from the deals. The cosmic Chevrolet deal by Manchester United played a big role in larger leap of income generated in the Premier League.

Spanish Primera League or La Liga experienced an increase by 30% whereas Italian Premier League or Serie A saw an increase in the region of 21%.

Conclusions

The first-division clubs across the major leagues in Europe receive a whopping amount of money from the sponsorship deals for the players’ jersey. Many of them also have kits deals with the foreign companies but the main source of their income is shirt sponsorship contract. These deals benefit those companies by earning them attention worldwide and from a larger cluster of consumers.

Author’s Bio: Kev Rob is the editor cum chief blogger of Goldengoals.com. In this article, she has focused on the shirt sponsorship deals across several popular leagues in Europe, especially English Premier League football. Visit the website’s Facebook and Twitter Pages to stay updated with football news. 

Amazing history of the largest five stadiums in England

Football is a game which involves the participation of 22 players (and the other supporting staff and substitutes of the teams playing) but what brings an x-factor to the game is the number of fans and supporters involved in the game or rather present during a match, watching it live. There are many great stadiums in England which has the best environment to watch a football game. Here are a list of the top three largest stadiums in United Kingdom.

1.      Wembley Stadium – This arena has a beautiful history. It was reopened in the year 2007 after it was demolished in 2002-2003. It took almost five years to complete the re-construction of this ground because of the lack of financial assistance. According to the rules and regulations of UEFA, Wembley ground falls in the fourth category. It is also the second largest stadium in Europe and has the capacity to fill in about 90000 people during a football match. The Football Association owns the Wembley arena through WNSL.

It is also famous for several other reasons. It hosts the final of FA Cup every year. Besides this, the stadium also hosts the international matches of England. The UEFA Champions League final was also played in this ground in the year 2011 and 2013.

The arena with its circumference of 1 km has more than 2100 toilets (more than any other stadiums in the world). Besides hosting the football matches, Wembley also hosts several music concerts and important international conferences. The rock band Green Day’s performance had seen the presence of more than 90,000 people in Wembley.

2.      Old Trafford Stadium – The Old Trafford or the ‘Theatre of Dreams’ as it is remembered as is one of the oldest stadiums in England. Opened in the year 1910, the Old Trafford had a capacity of 80000 people. At present there are little more than 75000 seats in there. Since its inception, the club has been playing home games in this field. During the second world war, it was damaged because of the bombing by German missiles because the ground had been a shelter for the British troops during the war. During the re-consruction of it, the United team had shared the ground of their city rivals Manchester City, in Milne Road.

The present arena has a covering of the roofs. This covering was made in the year 1959. It is the largest field among all the other clubs in the premier league.

3.      Emirates Stadium – Hosting the matches of Arsenal, it is the third largest ground in England after Wembley and Old Trafford. It has a capacity of a bit more than 60000. Officially opening at the year 2006, it was the second stadium for Arsenal. Its first stadium being the Arsenal stadium, located at Highbury in London (built in the year 1913). The Arsenal fans wanted to increase the capacity of their first arena but it was built in a residential area and therefore it could not be expanded. Ultimately leading to the construction of a new stadium.

Besides being a football ground, Emirates also hosts the Conference meets and music events on several occasions.

Author’s Bio: Goldengoals.com is an authentic football website that brings us latest information about league matches, transfer updates, sponsors and other crucial details each and every day. Visit their website and Twitter page to stay updated on soccer news.

Worst Football Injuries

It is said that football is a game of hard toiling and perseverance but sometimes this beautiful sport gives a hard time to many players through the injuries the latter suffer while playing the game. While playing a match, a player is always on his toes and ready to run and give his hundred percent for the team but often this turns out fatal to them as the players, in the aftermath of a tackle, suffer many injuries, which forces them to quit the game for a period of time or sometimes completely. Few such injuries are as follows:-

1. Alan Smith – Sir Alex had claimed that he had never seen a grave injury as Smith’s ever before. The match between Liverpool and Manchester United turned out to be an ill-fated match for Alan Smith in the year 2006. Smith was injured because of landing awkwardly after blocking a free kick. As a consequence, he had broken his left leg and dislocated his ankle.

Because of the seriousness of the injury, he had also receive a standing ovation from the Liverpool fans. This injury had forced Smith to be out of the game for a period of seven months.

2. Djibril Cisse – The French forward who had started his career at Auxerre and had made 128 appearances for them having scored 70 goals in that time, had suffered several serious injuries during his football career. He had also missed the World Cup finals for France as he got himself injured in the clash against China in a warm-up game (before the World Cup). He had injured his right leg then.

His first injury occurred at Ewood Prk while he was playing for Liverpool. He had managed to fracture two areas in his left leg and was out for several months from the football ground.

Miraculously, he survived the two injuries and came back to the football field strongly after seven months of receiving the injury.

3. Peter Cech – In the year 2006, Peter Cech who was a goalkeeper of Chelsea during that time had fractured his skull in an accident with reading’s striker Stephen Hunt. The incident would have costed the life of the legendary goalkeeper but he survived somehow.

A severe concussion had occurred in his skull after he was hit by the Irish midfielder and had collapsed in the dressing room moments after he was taken back from the field.

After everyone had thought that he would be outside for more than a year, Cech had made a miraculous recovery by returning to the football pitch after 3 months. Cech now wears a rugby styled mask to protect his skull from further injuries.

Interestingly in that match, after Cech was removed from the pitch, John Terry   had become the goalkeeper for the remaining minutes. Many former footballers and goalkeepers had said that tyhere must be more protection for the goalkeepers in the future to prevent them from being hurt. In an interview after several months, Cech had said that he did not remember anything about the injury.

Author’s Bio: Goldengoals.com is an authentic football website that brings us latest information about league matches, transfer updates, sponsors and other crucial details each and every day. Visit their website and Twitter page to stay updated on soccer news.

Criminal Minds

In the game of football, the glamour aspect is something which every player has to face whether in the beginning of his career or in due course. And when people have much money and property, they tend to increase those by hook or crook sometimes. Thus, there had been few footballers who have been charged with crime for their involvement in it somehow or the other. Few premier league players were involved in certain crimes they had committed that it defamed their personality as a whole. Few players stopped playing the game altogether while few others were sacked by their clubs. Again there are instances of how players even after getting involved in a crime had continued their career and ended it successfully.

Joe Barton is one such player who had started his career fairly well but was involved in hitting a person. His face was recorded in a CCTV footage and he was jailed for six months at Strangeways prison in Manchester. However, after serving his punishment for two months, he was given a bail. At the time he was involved in this incident, he was playing for Newcastle United. The then Newcastle manager Kevin Keegan also had supported him during his acquittal. After being released, Barton went back to Newcastle and then he went to the French club Marseille and later also came back to the premier league to play for QPR.

Marlon King is another player who has been to the courtroom for a good many times. In the year 2009, he was jailed for one and a half years for groping a woman and then physically assaulting her. At that moment he was playing for Wigan but after he was released from jail, the Wigan club authorities sacked him. He then joined Coventry City and became the player of the year for them in that year. King had also served 18 months in jail for dangerous driving.

Lee Hughes was a striker of West Brom Albion when he was imprisoned for six years. His crime was dangerous drink driving which caused few deaths also. The club had ended his contract after he was jailed. In 2007, when he had been released from prison, he signed a deal with Oldham Athletic Club. Later, he made 55 appearances for the club and scored as many as 25 goals.

Plymouth supporters must be remembering Luke Mckornick only for bad reasons. He was the player who had caused the death of two brothers aged 8 and 10 in a drunken state while he was driving his M6. Immediately after the incident was known by the Plymouth club officials, he was sacked from the club. He was sentenced to jail and was imprisoned for seven years and four months.

Liverpool had stuck by Jan Molby while he was imprisoned for drink driving. He served few months in jail and after being released, he continued to play for Liverpool for another eight years.

Players having a huge fan following must try to prevent themselves from committing crimes of any sorts.

Author’s Bio: Goldengoals.com is an authentic football website that brings us latest information about league matches, transfer updates, sponsors and other crucial details each and every day. Visit their website and Twitter page to stay updated on soccer news.

Hand of God’s Goal

Something which everyone remembers from the 1986 World Cup is the goal scored by Diego Maradona against England. The well known goal, known as Hand of God goal, is considered to be the most controversial goal till the present day in world football. The goal was scored under the referring of Ali Bin Nasser (from Tunisia) when the latter failed to judge whether the goal was scored unfairly. This goal was scored in the same match when Maradona scored the goal of the century by scoring the second goal after dribbling past five English players including the goalkeeper Shilton. Thus, the match becomes important for two reasons and is famous in the footballing world.

Maradona had scored the goal six minutes after the second half had started. Even though the English goalkeeper (whose height was more than 6ft), Maradona was able to bluff him while scoring a goal with his hand. Later in the post match press conference, Maradona had said that the goal was scored "un poco con la cabeza de Maradona y otro poco con la mano de Dios" (which means that the goal was scored partly by the head of mine and partly by the hand of God). From thence the goal came to be known as hand of god goal.

It was seen so badly by England who claimed that the goal had costed them the World Cup in the year 1986. England’s coach Bobby Robson after the match had criticized the referee by saying that one could not expect such poor decisions in the world cup level. He was right in making such a comment but the whole incident occurred in such quick succession that very few people could notice it. It was only when the picture was published in the newspaper and the replay (of the incident) was seen on TV that people got to know about it. Most people were shocked because they could not believe that such a wonderful player, who was also the captain of Argentina, could use such foul means to score a goal.

The controversy was not taken well by the Argentinian fans because thay always had an excuse of the second goal which was scored three minutes later by Maradona. The Argentinians always heap praises on Maradona by saying that the second goal (which later became goal of the century) is the one the Englishmen should be seeking to understand and accept the defeat.

The controversy triggered by the goal caused havoc in the media and people all around the world started. The first goal was called the “scandal of the century” by German press agency DPA. Few people comment on the action of the two referees after the goal was scored. The referee and his linesman looked at each other while Maradona was celebrating the goal. Their looks at each other suggested confusion in their eyes. Their lack of instant action led to the goal being allowed. The referee Bin Nasser said in the fifteenth anniversary of the match to an Argentinian magazine saying that he believed in the linesman’s decision and trusted him. Thus he was sure not to change his decision. And he also said that besides the decision, he had a very good game on that iconic day.

Author’s Bio: Goldengoals.com is an authentic football website that brings us latest information about league matches, transfer updates, sponsors and other crucial details each and every day. Visit their website and Twitter page to stay updated on soccer news.