Fifa

Last year, the WPP-owned advertising company Group M, launched the rights holder-facing ESP Properties under its new global agency brand, ESP

Energy sector sponsorships are worth around €188m ($211.8m) per year based on research into the main deals involving brands that have some retail presence, that is to say, companies that provide electricity direct to homes or businesses.

Sports Sponsorship Insider has researched the sponsorship profiles of 18 international federations, highlighting the annual value of sponsorship to each federation, the top deals contracted and the other sponsor brands that comprise their portfolios.

Fifa has become the latest international beneficiary of the Chinese government’s mandate to improve football in the country and host a World Cup, with three major sponsorship deals either finalised or under discussion.

“Have you been to China recently?” I ask this because the question is really a kind of shorthand for a different sort of enquiry, that is to say: is your sports, brand or agency connected to the potentially vast quantities of money that will be spent on sport by both the public and private sector in China over the next few years?

Last week, Sports Sponsorship Insider listed the Top 40 biggest deals of 2015 by value over the lifetime of the contract. Looking ahead to this year, there are many more mega-deals to be made - deals that will surpass the $100m-plus mark that encompassed all but one of the 39 deals in our Top 40 of 2015.

Alibaba E-Auto, the car manufacturing brand of Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group, has secured a long-term partnership deal with football’s global governing body Fifa for the annual Club World Cup tournament.

Five leading sponsors of football’s world governing body, Fifa, have stated that any reforms that take place within the organisation should be subject to “independent oversight”.

Outgoing Fifa president Sepp Blatter has maintained that world football’s governing body is not a corrupt “institution,” adding that he is “clean” amid ongoing criminal investigations into the governance of the sport.

The Emirates airline has expressed an interest in renewing its commercial ties with Fifa when the corruption scandal currently engulfing football’s global governing body has been resolved.

Fifa’s five top-tier sponsors have broadly welcomed Sepp Blatter’s announcement that he will step down as president of world football’s governing body, but Coca-Cola and Visa have repeated warnings that they expect to see significant change at the organisation.

Financial services company Visa has said it will reassess its sponsorship of Fifa if football’s global governing body fails to implement changes in the wake of its latest scandal.

Executives from the Full Play, Torneos y Competencias and Traffic Sports agencies were accused today (Wednesday) of corruption in relation to the sale of marketing and media rights surrounding certain football matches and tournaments in the Americas.

Security software company Trend Micro Incorporated has signed a sponsorship agreement for the 2015 Fifa Women’s World Cup in Canada.

Thierry Weil, Fifa’s marketing director, has defended the value of a World Cup sponsorship, with news emerging today (Friday) that two more companies have decided against renewing high-profile deals.

Sports medicine specialist Clinica Meds, telecommunications provider Movistar and education institute Santo Tomas have reached deals to be national supporters of the Fifa U-17 World Cup national team football tournament when it arrives in Chile next year.