CAR SPONSORSHIPS IN EUROPEAN FOOTBALL 2017 REPORT CAR SPONSORSHIPS IN EUROPEAN FOOTBALL - REPORT 2017

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to our “Car Sponsorships in European Football” Report. Our team at the Sports Business Institute Barcelona has worked hard over the past month to collect, summarize and interpret the data on car sponsors involved in the football industry in Europe. Automakers’ interest in European football sponsorship continues to grow as brands look to gain market share over their competitors while at the same time penetrate emerging markets.

The report focuses on the involvement of the automotive industry in sponsorships with football clubs across the top fi ve leagues in Eu- rope including the Premier League, La Liga, the Budesliga, Serie A and Ligue 1.

We hope you enjoy reading it and would welcome your feedback.

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FOOTBALL INDUSTRY CAREER ADVANCEMENT GLOBAL NETWORKING RECOGNITION Learn the knowledge and develop the skills to Share skills, knowledge and network by joining Backed by a reputation of having previously trained optimize your professional opportunities in the an alumni community made up of like-minded executives from the top clubs, leagues, federations football industry. peers and industry executives in over 70 coun- and other football organizations worldwide tries across the globe. CAR SPONSORSHIPS IN EUROPEAN FOOTBALL - REPORT 2017

REPORT TAKEAWAYS

1 The most valuable deal belongs to Manchester United and Chevrolet estimated at $560M 2 28 diff erent car brands are involved in European football sponsorships 3 Across the top fi ve leagues, 56 clubs are involved with a car sponsor 4 The has the most clubs with a car sponsor: 15 CAR SPONSORSHIPS IN EUROPEAN FOOTBALL - REPORT 2017

OVERVIEW

Across the top fi ve leagues in Europe there are 98 clubs, and 56 of them hold a sponsorship deal with a car brand. While the Premier League is known for being a revenue generation giant (mainly due to highly valuable domestic and international TV rights), it is the league with the least amount of car sponsors. The league with the highest number of clubs with an offi cial car sponsor is the Bundesliga.

Once we will go into more depth for each league separately it will be revealed that some of the car sponsorships are deals that have been agreed upon with local car dealers rather than with the car brand itself. Hence, the high number of deals in Serie A and La Liga.

In total, there are 28 car brands involved in football sponsorship from 10 diff erent countries. CAR SPONSORSHIPS IN EUROPEAN FOOTBALL - REPORT 2017

BUNDESLIGA - OVERVIEW

The Bundesliga clubs have the most car sponsorship agreements. Out of the 18 clubs, 15 of them have a car sponsorship. The only clubs without an offi cial car sponsorship are Hoff enheim, Schalke 04 and Bayer Leverkusen.

LONG-TERM SPONSORSHIPS

The longest running car partnership in the Bundesliga belongs to Ford and 1.FC Koln. The agreement began in 1994 and is expected to run until 2019. The second-lon- gest agreement is between Audi and Bayern Munich, which began in 2002 and is expected to run until 2025 after being renewed in 2015 for an estimated €10M per year.

SHAREHOLDING

Audi has become a shareholder in two German clubs, Bayern Munich and Ingolstadt. In the latter Audi holds 20% of the ownership whereas at Bayern Munich Audi owns 8.33% of the club shares.

CAR SPONSORSHIPS IN EUROPEAN FOOTBALL - REPORT 2017

STADIUM SPONSORSHIP

In Wolfsburg, Volkswagen contributed approximately €26.5M to help build the club’s new stadium back in 2001. ’s stadium is called the Arena since 2016 and the deal is expected to run until 2021. Ingol- stadt stadium is called the Audi-Sportpark. The deal between the two runs since 2006 and in 2008 Audi ac- quired the naming rights for the stadium. In 2013, Audi became the owner of the stadium.

CLUB AND BRAND INDEX Audi Bayern Munich, Hertha Berlin, Augsburg, Borussia Monchenglad- bach, Hamburger SV and Ingolstadt. BMW Eintracht Frankfurt Ford 1.FC Koln Opel , SC Freiburg and Mainz 05 Suzuki SV Darmstadt 98 Volkswagen RB Leipzig, Wolfsburg and Werder Bremen

The Volkswagen Group is the most promi- nent among car sponsorships in . In spite of the Volkswagen brand being linked with only 3 clubs, it maintains its presence through the Audi brand. CAR SPONSORSHIPS IN EUROPEAN FOOTBALL - REPORT 2017

LA LIGA - OVERVIEW

La Liga is the only competition in the report with an offi cial car sponsor. The league signed a car sponsorship agreement with Mazda in 2015 to become the offi cial car of both the fi rst and second division.

LONG-TERM SPONSORSHIPS

The longest-standing car sponsorship agreement in La Liga belongs to Real Madrid and Audi, which began in 2003. FC Barcelona also signed a deal with Audi in 2006. The agreement is expected to run until 2018. It is also worth noting that as of the 2016-17 season Citroën ended its com- mercial relationship of 31 years with club Celta de Vigo.

STRONG GERMAN PRESENCE IN LA LIGA

Out of the 20 clubs in La Liga, 11 of them have a commercial relationship with an automaker. Nine of those clubs have a sponsorship agreement with German car brands. Seven out of the 11 partnerships involve local/regional car dealers. This means the commercial relationship is with a CLUB AND BRAND INDEX local agency and therefore may not Audi Real Madrid, Barcelona, Villarreal include an annual sponsorship fee but and Athletic Bilbao rather an in-kind supply of cars for the BMW Sevilla team and/or special off ers for fans Mercedes Deportivo La Coruna Seat Eibar Volkswagen Las Palmas, Valencia and Osasuna Volvo Granada CAR SPONSORSHIPS IN EUROPEAN FOOTBALL - REPORT 2017

LIGUE 1 - OVERVIEW

Half of the clubs in the league have a car sponsorship agreement. Notably absent are two of this year’s title contenders, AS Monaco and Nice.

LONG-TERM SPONSORSHIP

Paris Saint-Germain has a sponsorship agreement with Citroën that began in 2011 and is expected to fi nish in 2017. The club also has an offi cial bus partner in MAN that has been active since 2012.

LOCAL & REGIONAL COMMERCIAL AGREEMENTS

Like in Spain, several of these commercial agreements with Ligue 1 clubs have been sealed with local and regional licensed car deal- ers as in Nancy Lorraine’s and Metz’s case. Nevertheless, those car brands feature on the sponsors section on the club’s websites. The French automaker Citroën has ongoing sponsorship agreements with Paris Saint-Ger- main and Olympique Marseille. It is not sur- CLUB AND BRAND INDEX prising to see the brand supporting two of the country’s most popular and iconic clubs. Citroën PSG and Olympique Marseille Hyundai Olympique Lyonnais Volvo AS Nancy Lorraine and AS Saint-Etienne Scania Angers Ford, Kia, Jaguar, Land Rover AS Nancy Lorraine BMW Metz, Lille, FC Lorient CAR SPONSORSHIPS IN EUROPEAN FOOTBALL - REPORT 2017

PREMIERP LEAGUE- OVERVIEW

TheT Premier League is the most valuable football league in the world. It is estimated that the total commercial revenue for the league isi close to $1.6 billion. Only seven out of the 20 Premier League clubs have a car sponsorship and three of those agreements are with GermanG car brands.

LONG-TERM SPONSORSHIP

Arsenal’s sponsorship agreement with Citroën is the longest deal in the Premier League, signed in 2008. The partnership is set to fi nish in 2017 but reports suggest the club is already in negotiations to extend the partnership beyond the current campaign.

ASIAN CAR BRANDS IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE

In 2016 Liverpool agreed to an 18-month regional partnership with Chinese automotive fi rm MG Auto. The deal is set to expire at the end of the 2017 season. In 2014 Nissan also entered in the Premier League by signing a fi ve-year deal with Manchester City reportedly worth over $25 million.

CLUB AND BRAND INDEX Citroën Arsenal MG Liverpool Nissan Manchester City Chevrolet Manchester United BMW AFC Bournemouth Mercedes-Benz Middlesbrough FC CAR SPONSORSHIPS IN EUROPEAN FOOTBALL - REPORT 2017

SERIE A - OVERVIEW

Serie A clubs have a high number of car sponsorship agreements. Out of the 20 clubs CLUB & BRAND in the competition, 14 of them have a commercial relationship with a car brand. INDEX Renault Lazio, Fiorentina, Pescara LONG-TERM SPONSORSHIP Infi niti Inter Milan The kit sponsorship between Juventus and Jeep is no coincidence. Ever since return- Volvo Atalanta, Pescara ing to Serie A in 2007/08 the club has regained its status as one of the country’s most Audi AC Milan dominant clubs. The Jeep brand is part of the Fiat-Chrysler company which is owned Suzuki Torino by the Agnelli family who also own Juventus. In 2014 Jeep inked a six-year extension Ssang Yong Sampdoria to its front-of-shirt sponsorship which will now run until the end of the 2020/21 season. Volkswagen Chievo It is estimated to be worth $136 million. Dacia Udinese Volvo Sassuolo STADIUM NAMING RIGHTS Kia Bologna Mercedes, Alfa Romeo Pescara Udinese partnered with Romanian car brand Dacia (owned by the Renault Group) in 2009. The brand became the offi cial shirt sponsor. In 2016 the club sold the naming *As is the case in other leagues, some clubs such as rights of the Stadio Friuli to Dacia and is now known as the Dacia Friuli Arena. The Pescara have agreements with various local licenced car deal is expected to run until 2020. dealers. CAR SPONSORSHIPS IN EUROPEAN FOOTBALL - REPORT 2017

BASIS OF PREPARATION

For each of the 98 clubs across all leagues we reviewed their sponsors/partners section on their offi cial web- sites. We regarded a sponsorship between club and a car manufacturer when the logo of the brand was visibly identifi ed on the website. As a result, we have also included deals with local and regional car dealers. The country of the car brand was determined by place of establishment.

Thank you for reading. Want more information? Please contact our team at [email protected]

Edited by: Diego Valdes Director Sports Business Institute Barcelona

Author: David Haimovich Marketing Assistant Sports Business Institute Barcelona

Sports Business Institute Barcelona Email: [email protected] www.sbibarcelona.com Twitter:@SBI_Barcelona

May 2017