Detailed plans have been revealed regarding the Football Association’s (FA) plans to launch a new Women’s Super League for English soccer. The league will consist of the top 8 club’s in the country and is backed by a television deal which will run from April until August of next year.

The news comes as the most significant in the history of women’s soccer in England though the FA are being conservative in their approach after the American league, Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS) has hit hard times of late.

Head of the National game at the FA, Kelly Simmons said: “We’re not going too big too quick. We won’t have full squads of professional footballers straight away. Ours is more of a conservative approach, which we think is more sustainable. It is a very different model. The US have struggled, they invested too much in salaries. They haven’t got the revenue to pay the salaries they’re paying, and their costs are much higher than us because of travel.”

The FA have revealed that US$3.1m worth of investment will be provided to support the plans over the next two years. Half of this will go directly to the clubs and the rest will cover the running costs of the league including central contracts for 20 England players at $24,000 a year. The new funding brings the FA’s support of the plans for women’s soccer in England to $4.7m.

Major broadcasting company ESPN have been announced as the official rights holder to air 30-minute weekly highlights along with 5 live matches from the first season. Although the league will not command any TV revenue, the FA will not be expected to cover production costs for ESPN – a rarity in women’s sport.

While the WPS offers significantly improved wage packages than in this country, the new Super League is unlikely to attract international stars, though this is not the priority according to England Women’s team manager, Hope Powell. Powell stated: “If I’m honest there’s great talent around the world, but my ambition is to have this league produce homegrown talent. I’d like it to be an all-English league that encourages younger players coming through.”

A sponsorship deal worth almost US$20m has been agreed over a three-year period between major telecommunications company MTN and the Nigeria and Zambia soccer federations.

The Nigerian Premier League is set to be the majority benefactor as the company look to invest US$17m over four-years, coming as a major boost to the league’s powerbrokers. The deal comes at a time when Davidson Owumi, chairman of the league, has been taken to court contesting the legitimacy of his position.

The agreement is the latest occurrence in an ongoing battle for the major sponsorship platforms of Nigerian soccer between MTN and Globacom. Globacom reportedly owes the Nigeria Premier League almost US$6 million in unpaid sponsorship fees from last season. This supposed money owed has led to the league’s debts of more than US$4.5 million.

An unnamed Globacom executive told Nigerian press: “The last has not been heard of this. The entire process has been less than satisfactory. We have a situation where one company put it in a bid and then another organisation, which did not formally enter the race, is said to have won the bid.”

MTN will also sponsor the Zambian Super League in a deal worth US$827,000 to become title sponsor for the next three years.

The England Soccer Team’s exclusive commercial interests management company, 1966 has appointed The Sports PR Company to look after all media across its clients. The partnership will also see the company responsible for all charitable work which includes the Team England Footballers Charity (TEFC).

The England squad made a decision to donate their match fees as well as dedicate their time to partners such as the Children’s Hospices UK, WellChild and the Bobby Moore Fund for Cancer Research UK. The decision saw over £1.3m (US$2m) raised for good causes.

TEFC has also launched its own ‘Outreach Programme’ that uses football to improve opportunities for disadvantaged children and young adults across the country.

A three-year deal has been agreed which will see Coca-Cola extend their sponsorship of German Bundesliga soccer club Eintracht Frankfurt.

Coca-Cola will remain a second tier partner of the club, with pouring rights for non-alcoholic drinks at the club’s home ground, the Commerzbank Arena. Coca-Cola will also participate in a range of promotional activities in a deal thought to be worth an estimated US$450,000 a year.

Heribert Bruchhagen, Eintracht Frankfurt chairman said that the support of a global brand like Coca-Cola would help the club build for the future.

It has been reported that English Premier League (EPL) soccer clubs are interested in following the example set by Barcelona, unhealthy of having more than one kit sponsor to increase revenue.

The commercial regulations to allow clubs the opportunity to sell space on their shirts to multiple backers is not currently allowed although initial approaches are thought to have been made to change this ruling, claims the Daily Mail.

The Premier League is examining the proposal, which would need majority support among the 20 clubs though it is believed that the league do not want to follow in the footsteps of the Formula 1 route of multi-sponsorship branding.

Barcelona will become the first test of the new arrange after the club agreed a deal to have both its charity partner UNICEF and its £125m record-breaking sponsors the Qatar Foundation on its shirts.

Tottenham received permission from the Premier League this season to have a league backer in Autonomy and Investec on its cup shirts.

German Bundesliga soccer club and league struggler’s, 1. FC Koln have renewed their kit sponsorship deal with supermarket chain Rewe until the end of the 2011/12 season.

The deal is worth US$4.45m to the club and will offer the sponsor TV-visible advertising hoardings at the Rhein Energie Stadion, the clubs home venue.

Rewe Group board member Josef Sanktjohanser said that the club had great ambition stating: “With the contract extension, we are making a sign that we will stand by the club and its many fans in difficult times. We are confident that with the fighting spirit it has shown in the last few games, the team is on the right track.”

“We will make every effort to return the confidence that Rewe has placed in us by renewing this contract.” added 1. FC Köln president Wolfgang Overath.

English soccer club Blackburn Rovers’ new owners, the Venky’s Group, have refuted claims that the club’s transfer policy is being set by sports agency Kentaro.

Less than a month after the Indian poultry firm had bought the club, the new owners decided to sack manager Sam Allardyce who has since claimed that he no longer controlled transfers. 

Venky’s group chairman Anuradha Desai said: “Kentaro are our main consultants but Sam had the final call. But we didn’t even get as far as discussing any names with him.” 

Desai stated that Allardyce’s dealings in previous transfer markets had not impressed the new owners. 

“My father once told me that out of 10 decisions you must get at least seven right – you can get two or three wrong, we’re not gods,” she continued. 

“But to get nine or 10 wrong is not good and things have been going wrong with transfers – that’s a fact.

“As for Kentaro, they introduced us to the club in August and continue to advise us, but we are talking to a lot of people and we certainly don’t have an exclusive deal with them. All our transfers don’t have to go through them.” 

Kentaro’s role at Ewood Park has been the source of speculation ever since Venky’s emerged as a potential buyer of the Lancashire club.

According to Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad Bin Jasim Bin Jaber Al-Thani, the nation has no plans to issue bonds in order to cover the cost of the 2022 soccer World Cup.

Sheikh Hamad announced at the opening of a courtroom at Qatar Financial Centre, that the government had already covered “70 per cent to 80 per cent” of the costs involved in staging the event. He revealed that most of the plans, in terms of infrastructure, had already been arranged prior to the nation winning the vote on 2 December with the event’s infrastructure as a whole, predicted to take about seven years to build.

Sirius XM Radio and NASCAR announced an agreement to simulcast the programming on the SiriusXM NASCAR Radio channel in its entirety  which includes live broadcasts of every national series race, health plus daily NASCAR talk – online for SiriusXM subscribers nationwide.

Starting with this weekend’s races in Fontana, CA (March 24-25), subscribers who have SiriusXM Internet Radio access can listen to live broadcasts of every NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, NASCAR Nationwide Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race on the SiriusXM NASCAR radio channel through their computers at siriusxm.com and through the SiriusXM Internet Radio App for smartphone and wireless devices.

SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90, is available to Sirius subscribers, XM Premier (formerly known as “The Best of Sirius”) and SiriusXM Premier subscribers. 

SiriusXM NASCAR Radio is the only radio channel dedicated to NASCAR racing 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.  The channel’s daily talk programming will begin simulcasting online on Thursday, March 22.  Throughout the season, NASCAR fans get a daily lineup of call-in talk shows that feature up-to-the-moment news, expert analysis and interviews with the biggest names in the sport, plus specials hosted by three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Tony Stewart.

“Extending our broadcasting agreement with SiriusXM was a big offseason move for the sport,” said Brian France, Chairman and CEO of NASCAR. “A dedicated NASCAR channel is important for our teams, tracks, drivers and sponsors and is crucial for fan engagement and audience growth. Being able to simulcast SiriusXM NASCAR Radio online to subscribers nationwide will allow us additional opportunities to take our product to new fans in new places.”

“SiriusXM NASCAR Radio has become a part of many NASCAR fans’ daily lives and with so many fans now connecting to their sport through handheld devices, we want to give them an easy way to access the sport they love online and in mobile settings,” said Scott Greenstein, SiriusXM’s President and Chief Content Officer.  “NASCAR is an excellent partner and its programming continues to be a key element in the SiriusXM lineup.  We’re very pleased to now deliver to our subscribers live coverage of every race broadcast, plus our unparalleled daily talk and analysis, through their computers and mobile devices in addition to their satellite radios.”

SiriusXM and NASCAR recently agreed to a five-year extension of their satellite broadcasting agreement.  SiriusXM will continue to broadcast every NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, NASCAR Nationwide Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race live nationwide through 2016.  Listeners also get daily NASCAR talk and expert analysis 365 days a year on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.

by Ismail Uddin

MP & Silva has acquired media rights for all platforms for the VELUX European Handball Federation (EHF) Champions League and the EHF Women’s Champions League in France, check  USA and Canada from the start of the 2012/13 season and for the next five years.

The company’s rights in the three markets will extend to all matches of the men’s competition, generic cheap the VELUX EHF Champions League and the EHF Women’s Champions League, and will include the weekly magazine show “Rewind – The Handball Show” and Match of the Week, produced in HD with full commentary in English.

The worldwide streaming rights for betting companies are also part of the agreement, which will run until the end of the 2016/17 season.

Peter Vargo, Managing Director of EHF Marketing GmbH – marketing arm of EHF, said: “We have been working successfully with MP & Silva on the Asian market. They are a major international media rights agency, and this significant deal underlines just how far we have come with the development of the VELUX EHF Champions League product into a major brand on the international TV market.”

Andrea Radrizzani, Group CEO, MP & Silva, said: “After working with EHF Marketing GmbH for over a year, I’m extremely happy to expand our partnership for prolonged period of time and to include North America and France. We want to encourage the global reach of Europe’s handball to other regions and MP & Silva network of international agents can support the EHF to increase their TV audience.”

by Ismail Uddin