Having a huge sports goods manufacturing industry in your neighboring city, you ultimately get to see how they make all the sports goods. Living in Pakistan, I’ve seen a lot of footballs being hand-made. Now surely, hand-made footballs can not meet up to the requirements and demands of the modern footballing world. We need a plant that would make hundreds of footballs in a day!

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German magazine Focus reported that customs investigators in Germany have seized almost ten million counterfeit football shirts and scarves of major European clubs.

More than half of the seized goods sported badges and logos of major Bundesliga clubs; topping the list are Bayern Munich, Schalke 04 and Borussia Dortmund.

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I always though the first hip-hop artist or a rapper to get a football sponsor to promote themselves or maybe just be cool will be 50 Cent, Diddy, Snoop Dogg or someone of the like but thanks to Universal Music, KOOL SHEN steals the opportunity and becomes the first rapper to have his name appear on a football club’s shirt.

Ok, what has happened is that Lyon, BetClick and Universal Music have taken an initiative to promote the name of the rapper KOOL SHEN through the sponsoring of the shirt for the game against Marseille on Sunday. It is one of the biggest game in Ligue 1.

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Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich are in talks with the Germany based automotive company Audi about an 100 million euro a year investment and sponsorship deal. Audi wants to take a share in the club and sign a lengthy shirt sponsorship agreement; as revealed by the general manager of Bayern, Uli Hoeness.

The percentage negotiated by the two German giants has not yet been disclosed neither has been the length of the agreement. Uli Hoeness said:

“This is a participation (in the club) and a long-term contract. It is a package. An advertising contract and a participation. The amount is well over 100 million euros (£90m).”

He also said that the deal is yet to be finalised but he expects an announcement before the annual general meeting of the club on 27th November.

Source

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Holland’s Eredivisie winner AZ Alkmaar does not have a sponsor right now. According to court’s ruling, their previous sponsor, DSB Bank officially went bankrupt on 19th October, 2009. Taking advantage of that, Russia’s and the world’s largest gas company, Gazprom showed interest in not just sponsoring AZ but also buying the club, the stadium and the naming rights for a measly 35 million euros. Petty cash considering Gazprom’s unrivaled market share.

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Tottenham’s current big-money sponsor deal with Mansion expires at the end of the 2009/2010 season and a renewal does not seem to be in the books. Since Manchester United, Liverpool and Manchester City have already agreed to new sponsors and Chelsea and Arsenal are planning to stick to their sponsors, it is highly unlikely that the Spurs will be able to find someone as rich as they want.

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The Russian champions, Rubin Kazan is currently wearing Nike manufactured kits but their deal expires with the 2009/2010 kits. They have now signed a deal with Nike’s British subsidiary Umbro. The deal will end in 2012. ABM SPORT, the Umbro representative in Russia, said that the new shirt will be unique and manufactured using the latest football shirt technology.

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Everton launched a kit to show their support for a charity inspired by the murder of the schoolboy Rhys Jones. The shirt became the fastest selling pre-ordered shirt for the club.

Everton hope to raise £100,000 for the Liverpool Unites children’s charity following Rhys’s death in August 2007. The club’s retro home shirt (Everton 09/10 Home Shirt)already broke records but this shirt is three times more popular. It is due to be unveiled on 29th October, 2009 and available from the 30th.

The charity is supported by Stephen and Melanie Jones, the parents of the 11 year old boy after being shot in the Croxteth Park estate area two years ago. Liverpool Unites fundraiser, Tom Woolley said:

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The African Cup of Nations is just around the corner and as the hype is building up, Puma has shown their dominance in African football by making three announcements.

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Les Fennecs (translated: The Desert Foxes) represent Algeria in the footballing world and wear Le Coq Sportif kits. From the dawn on 2010, Algeria will wear Puma and they will be the 12th top-ranked African team to wear Puma.

Algeria appeared in the 1982 and the 1986 World Cup along with 13 African Cup of Nations appearances, winning it in 1990. Jochen Zeitz, Chariman and CEO of Puma AG said:

“The association with Algeria underpins PUMA’s commitment to African Football.”

“Les Fennecs have an impressive history on the pitch and are again poised to be a top contender at CAN 2010. We’re thrilled to welcome them to the Puma family.”

Source

Popularity: 2% [?]

Fulham was established in 1879, making it the oldest club in London. They made their Premier League debut in 2000-01 and they have managed to stay put since.

Fulham was founded as the Fulham St. Andrew’s Church Sunday School. Their current home stadium is Craven Cottage which recently witnessed it’s first European night. Even though Fulham has produced players like Bobby Robson, Johnny Haynes and Rodney Marsh but they have still been unable to lift any major trophies. The closest they came was their 2-0 loss to West Ham in the 1975 FA Cup final. They have won the Championship twice in 1949 and 2001.

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Update: Buy the CTR360 Maestri from Kitbag. More information at the end.

Nike launched the all new concept in game improvement: a unique digital coaching experience called Nike Soccer+ alongside the new CTR360 Maestri Boot – football boots made specially for the player looking to master control to make a difference on match day.

With every boot, comes a unique user code that allows access to exclusive training content from some of the biggest names in football including Cesc Fabregas (Arsenal, Spain) and Andres Iniesta (Barcelona, Spain).

The combination of Nike Soccer+ and CTR360 helps improve a player’s performance by connecting the innovative product design with the virtual and physical world of training.

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Popularity: 7% [?]

What started off as Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik (German for Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory) is now two of the leading sports manufacturer brands in the whole wide world: Adidas and Puma. Two brothers, Rudolf Dassler and Adolf Dassler from Germany, started off a shoe manufacturing company from their mother’s laundry after World War I; in 1924 to be exact. The brothers split in 1947, after the World War II after many disagreements and formed two separate companies: Ruda (from Rudolf Dassler) and adidas AG (lower case lettering; ‘Adi’ short for Adolf and Dassler, instead of ‘All Day I Dream About Sports‘). Later on, Ruda became Puma AG and adidas AG became adidas.

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Herbalife International, a global nutrition, weight-loss and skin-care company, announced that it has completed a sponsorship deal with one of the leading La Liga football clubs, Valencia. Not only that, Herbalife will be the official provider of nutritional products to the club.

As a result of the deal, the Herbalife logo will be added to all of Valencia training and match kit shorts. Also Herbalife will be showcased through a variety of different media at Valencia’s home stadium, the Estadio Mestalla.

This deal is the fourth major football sponsorship after LA Galaxy in the USA, Inter Milan in Italy and FC Strasbourg in France. These relationships are a part of the extensive sponsorship portfolio which includes athletes, teams and events.

Source

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Update: Videos of the announcement made by The Reds and Standard Chartered added.

Liverpool is currently in a deal with the Danish brewers Carlsberg and the deal is going to end in mid of the year 2010. Carlsberg and the Reds have been working together for the past 17 years but they just couldn’t match up the deal offered by the multinational public limited bank based in London, Standard Chartered.

This new deal will break all the sponsorship records for Liverpool and silence the criticism posed by their own fans that they are always lagging behind their rivals in commercial agreements. This 4 year deal will bring in £20 million every year, hence totaling to £80 million at the end of the deal. This deal matches up to the amount Manchester United will net from their deal with AON, which will also start in 2010.

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