Under Armour, a kit supplier for Tottenham Hotspur from next season, has tasked brand communications company, Pretty Green, with building awareness of the brand, products and sponsorships within the UK. 

The agency was first brought in to run a project in 2011 to launch the Under Armour Welsh Rugby Union kit.

Pretty Green will look to educate consumers about Under Armour products through product placement, product launches, sponsorship and athlete activation and brand PR across sport, lifestyle and trade platforms. 

The agency’s remit will also include digital, involving development of Under Armour’s UK social media strategy across platforms including Facebook and Twitter.

Pretty Green will report to vice-president of global comms and entertainment, Diane Pelkey, who commented: “As an expert in brand building, PrettyGreen brings to the table a proven track record and the ambition to tell the Under Armour story and engage our key consumer audiences. The team has extensive sport and lifestyle media contacts, impressive digital credentials and strong sports marketing experience.”

Lucy Mart, head of Sport at PrettyGreen, added: “Opportunities to work with true innovator brands don’t come along every day. Under Armour has a unique offering and its products are pretty much unrivalled by any other sports apparel brand. 2012 is set to be a monumental year for Under Armour.”

Founded in 1996, the company’s products are now sold worldwide and worn by athletes including US swimmer Michael Phelps, England footballers Michael Dawson and Bobby Zamora and Welsh rugby union player Jamie Roberts.

Under Armour recently revealed healthy revenue growth.

by Ismail Uddin

Chelsea FC are looking to secure a naming rights sponsor for their Stamford Bridge stadium in the new year.

This follows last month where iSportconnect reported the club’s failed attempt to buy back the land on which the ground is built, could have facilitated a move to a new venue.

Chief executive Ron Gourlay said: “We have outgrown our stadium. We hope to make an announcement on naming rights in the next six to eight months. It would make a big step as we have to drive up the revenues.”

Gourlay first mentioned selling the stadium rights in 2009, stipulating that Stamford Bridge should remain in the new title and that a lease would be for between seven and 10 years.

Stamford Bridge currently holds 42,449 fans which drops to 38,000 on Champions League nights because of Uefa restrictions.

Gourlay said no decision had yet been made as to whether a new vote will be called at next month’s Annual General Meeting but insisted: “We need a 60-65,000 stadium. We have the eighth biggest stadium in England and the 61st biggest in Europe.

“But when you look at the activity of stadiums planned for next few years, we will fall out of the top 75 which can only be restrictive to the football club. We have corporate hospitality that is second to none and 30,000 season ticket holders.

“In the meantime we continue on our conversations to see if there is any way at all to extend Stamford Bridge.”

Brazilian Sports Minister Orlando Silva is feeling the heat after more evidence of alleged corruption emerged leaving him on the brink of losing his job.

Silva rushed back from the Pan American Games to his native Brazil earlier this week after allegations published in magazine Veja claimed that he aimed to embezzle as much as $23 million for himself and his communist party over eight years from a number of projects, including one that promotes sport for poor children.

But despite Silva’s emphatic denials of wrongdoing, his position is becoming increasingly precarious after the chief public prosecutor announced a formal inquiry into the issue and details emerged of sloppy bookkeeping and favouritism in the sports ministry’s contracts with Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs).

Reports also suggest that 59 contracts signed by the Sports Ministry between 2006 and 2011, during which Silva has been in charge, did not comply with regulations.

This suggests that even if Silva is not directly linked to corruption, he may ultimately be held accountable for poor oversight due to the fact that it happened on his watch.

The Brazilian Sports Minister is continuing to protest his innocence as the investigation continues but the issue could have major repercussions on both the FIFA 2014 World Cup and Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games – which Brazil are hosting – due to the fact that Silva is the Government lead on both projects.

Silva has been involved in both global sporting events since their infancy after being named Sports Mnister by former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva back in 2006.

He is currently the only Minister from Brazil’s Communist Party that is part of President Dilma Rousseff’s Coalition Party and maintained his high-ranking position when Rousseff came to power at the beginning of the year largely due to his heavy involvement and knowledge of the 2014 and 2016 projects.

The 2014 organising committee has been criticised by FIFA regarding serious delays to construction but the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic preparations were praised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Coordination Commission who last visited the city in June this year.

The scandal around the Sports Minister however, is an unwanted problem for both projects and also another unwelcome scandal for the Cabinet of Rousseff as since she took over as President in January four ministers have resigned or been sacked after being accused of corruption all denying any wrongdoing.

It has been announced that the 2014 World Team Table Tennis Championships, viagra the sports biggest event on the global calendar, medic will be staged in the Japanese capital of Tokyo at the Yoyogi National Stadium, representing the sixth time Japan has hosted the tournament.

The Japan Table Tennis Association (JTTA) last hosted the International Table Tennis Federation’s (ITTF) Individual World Championships in Yokohama two years ago.

ITTF president Adham Sharara stated: “This move was strongly encouraged by the ITTF and after discussions with the JTTA we were pleased to reach a positive outcome. It is important for Japan to display courage in adversity and host world-class events. We wanted to ensure the ITTF could provide an opportunity for such an event.”

A statement from the ITTF indicated that the body had considered giving Japan the opportunity to host the event after the devastating earthquake in March led to several other sporting events being shifted from the country. The 2012 World Team Table Tennis Championships will take place in Germany and the 2013 Individual World Championships will be staged in France.

Sharara added: “With the 2012 and 2013 World Championship hosts already agreed, 2014 was the earliest available slot, and after some negotiations with other candidates we were able to make it a reality.”

Tangent Graphic has been named as the lead design agency for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games. The Glasgow and New York based agency  are a multi-award winning company specialising in brand identity and art direction.

Tangent will be responsible for the development of the brand in partnership with the Glasgow 2014 organising committee. Tangent Graphic secured the contract over four other competitors by focussing on the design and strategic creation of the pictograms representing the core disciplines of the Games.

Director of marketing and sponsorship for Glasgow 2014, medstore  John Donnelly spoke of the deal: “After a thorough procurement process, sickness we have appointed Tangent as the lead Graphic Design Agency to produce key areas of work such as our Pictograms for Glasgow 2014. I’m really pleased that after our thorough search we found someone right on our doorstep in Glasgow to take on this exciting project, arthritis and help us deliver an outstanding Games.”

“We are looking forward to working on a wide range of projects for Glasgow 2014, not least one of the most eagerly-awaited design elements of any Games – the pictograms. We want to capture the drive and motion of each event in every pictogram, reflecting the energy and excitement of The Games.” added Andrew Stevenson, co-founder of Tangent Graphic.

“We are really excited about launching them, as our solution has real differentiation from previous pictograms, and maintains a strong tie in with the Glasgow 2014 brand. We are very proud to be working on an event that will mean so much to both Glasgow and Scotland”.

MP & Silva, a leading international sports media company, announced today the appointment of Rene Valencia for the newly created role as Vice President, Business Development and Sponsorship with effect from 4 February 2014. 

Rene will be responsible for overseeing the growth and development of the Olympic Council of Asia marketing programme, in addition to developing and implementing growth opportunities for MP & Silva’s Asia business. Rene will be based at MP and Silva’s Asia Pacific office in Singapore, and report directly to Peter Hutton, Joint-CEO of MP & Silva, and Mark Gorski, Senior Vice President, International Corporate Development and Head of Partnerships.

Rene’s appointment bolsters MP & Silva’s focus on further growth in Asia in exploring new commercial and sponsorship opportunities. MP & Silva has built a strong reputation as a leading sports media rights agency with an extensive portfolio of major properties, and have recently expanded its business to production, sponsorship and new projects such as media advisory partnerships in co-operation with the Olympic Council of Asia, Formula E and most recently the Chinese Professional Baseball League.

Hutton said: “We are extremely pleased to have someone with Rene’s solid experience, and look forward to leveraging on many of his proven skill-sets and relationships to continue our success across the region.

“He has a thorough understanding of the Olympic Council of Asia event portfolio and marketing program, and we are confident that his addition to the team will be invaluable in securing long-term marketing partnerships for the OCA, in addition to new business and sponsorship opportunities.”

Rene has more than a decade of experience in international sports marketing and rights management, and joins MP & Silva from the National Basketball Association (NBA) where he worked as a Director of International Development in the New York headquarters after spending time at NBA Asia in Hong Kong, growing the NBA’s business throughout Asia.

During his time with the NBA, Rene played a major role in a number of key initiatives including the first ever Emirates Airlines deal with the NBA in China for the NBA China Games in 2012. Rene also played an instrumental role in securing a host city agreement for the first ever NBA pre-season game to be held in Olympic host city – Rio de Janeiro.

Rene was previously the Head of Sponsorship for the Doha Asian Games 2006 Organizing Committee where he lead a team that secured key marketing partnerships with Samsung, Qatar Airways, Nestle, Technogym, GE, and Swiss Timing.