FIFA WILL MAKE 20 new partnership positions available across five regional blocs as part of a revamp of its tier-three level World Cup sponsorships, Sports Marketing Frontiers can exclusively reveal.
Last month, FIFA General Secretary Jerome Valcke told delegates at Soccerex that that “national supporter” category would be extended to cover the European continent for the FIFA World Cup in Russia 2018.
However, Sports Marketing Frontiers has learnt that the scope is, in fact, far wider than that.
A FIFA spokesperson said: “The new strategy for the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups will remain the same in the top two tiers with 14 global sponsors (six FIFA Partners and eight FIFA World Cup Sponsors), however there is a change in the third tier where we will now provide an opportunity for a maximum of 20 companies across five regions to become Regional Supporters and therefore gaining the opportunity to activate their rights on a regional basis.
“The five regions are 1. Europe, 2. North / Central America, 3. South America, 4. Africa / Middle East and 5. Asia and we will offer a maximum of 4 packages per region.”
Previously, the third tier has been occupied by a maximum of six domestic-based National Supporters who have the rights to activate their sponsorship rights in the Host Country of the FIFA World Cup. This commercial structure was implemented in 2007 and covers both the 2010 FIFA World Cup and the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
It should be noted that FIFA’s sponsorship inventory is fully owned and commercialised by FIFA and not at all by the Local Organising Committee.
There will be more information and analysis on this story in the December issue of Sports Marketing Frontiers.
By Matthew Glendinning
Follow Matthew on Twitter: @mattglen