Centauro to invest more than $50m in World Cup deal

Brazilian sports retailer Centauro will invest more than $50m (€38.5m) in activating its new national supporter sponsorship deal for the 2014 Fifa World Cup, following confirmation of the agreement by football's world governing body Fifa.

The deal, which completes Fifa's national supporter sponsorship sales for the tournament, gives Centauro marketing rights within Brazil during the World Cup and this year’s Confederations Cup dress rehearsal.

“We cannot say the exact figure we have agreed to pay Fifa, but our company will invest more than $50m in the next 15 months,” Sebastião Bomfim Filho, Grupo SBF’s chief executive officer, told Bloomberg.

Centauro already has commercial partnerships with leading club football competitions in Brazil such as the Copa do Brasil knockout tournament and the second-tier Serie B.

Apex Brasil, Itau, Garoto, Liberty Seguros and WiseUp are the World Cup’s other national supporters.

Global sponsorship package sales for the tournament were completed in July 2011 when Johnson & Johnson became the eighth World Cup sponsor.