Telco TIM has extended its title sponsorship of Serie A, the top division of Italian club football, while railway company Trenitalia has come on board as the new main sponsor of the Coppa Italia and Supercoppa Italiana in deals worth a reported €20m ($23.5m) per season.
TIM will also remain the major sponsor of the Primavera youth competitions organised by Lega Serie A and had also previously title sponsored the Coppa Italia and Supercoppa.
However, Trenitalia’s high-speed rail line, Frecciarossa, will take on the latter rights with the two contracts running across the three seasons spanning 2018-19 to 2020-21.
The Gazzetta dello Sport and Corriere dello Sport newspapers said TIM will pay €15m per season for its rights, with Trenitalia’s package worth €5m per season.
“With this agreement, TIM consolidates its commitment to football, the most loved sport in Italy, thus confirming the longest lasting sponsorship initiative of a sports league,” Pietro Scott Jovane, chief commercial officer at TIM, said.
“Football is entertainment and social aggregation, as well as healthy competition: values that TIM treasures while daily involved in the process of digital transformation of the country.”
Gaetano Miccichè, Lega Serie A chairman, added: “We are happy to continue the 20-year partnership with TIM for the next three seasons.
“With TIM we have always experimented with innovative forms of sponsorship, and the one that opens up will be an exciting three-year period in which we will start together new projects to enhance our brands.”