World's richest teams: Cup overfloweth

- EUR31m (£22m) more than Italy, its closest competitor.

Sponsorship money is crucial to any national team seeking to finance
itself, especially with governing bodies being run with a greater
commercial emphasis than ever. The FA has five main sponsors, covering a
variety of sectors: Umbro, McDonald's, Carlsberg, Nationwide and Pepsi.
In return for the heavy investment required to sign these contracts,
they get category-exclusive access to the team, its players and its
brand - all vital ways to get the message to consumers about their
association with the national sport.

Brand clashes

Partnering the national team during qualifiers and friendly games is one
thing, but the real value to a sponsor's relationship comes from
tournaments.

The best chance to capitalise on the potential of this sponsorship in
four years arrives this June.

While national team sponsors are presumably rubbing their hands with
glee, there are potential problems. The tournament itself already has 15
sponsors, contracted to global governing body FIFA, some of which are
the main category rival of the national team partners. For example,
Coca-Cola is an official World Cup sponsor, while Pepsi is an FA
partner. Similarly, Budweiser and Carlsberg find themselves competing
directly.

In order to protect the investments made by its event sponsors, FIFA has
put in place rules to outlaw any but its official partners from gaining
coverage at the event, such as a blanket ban on non-official brands
being present within a kilometre of a World Cup stadium. In this heavily
regulated environment, how do team sponsors get value for money?

According to Phil Carling, former Football Association (FA) commercial
director and head of football at Octagon, sponsors must be canny in how
they exploit their links. 'There is no doubt that the big thing for all
FA sponsors is access to the England team,' he says. 'This isn't easy
given the restrictions in place around the World Cup, where all the
match-day areas are exclusively the remit of FIFA sponsors.

'The training ground offers the best and only real environment where
team sponsors can get close to the players, which is why most sponsors
go big on branding the training area and then working the media angle.
It's the only environment the FA controls commercially at the World
Cup.'

Some teams are more open to commercial opportunities than others.
Brazil, for example, has built a 7000-seat stadium for its pre-World Cup
training camp, which is likely to attract 1500 journalists a day. The
Brazilian Football Association has been selling commercial packages for
this temporary venue to sponsors.

'It's very open,' says Carling. 'It's basically a showcase event and the
sponsors get free rein. Compared with that, the England training camp is
Fort Knox.'

Of all the FA's sponsor brands, McDonald's probably will have the
easiest time in Germany, given that it is both an English national team
and FIFA World Cup sponsor. 'We have opportunities on both a national
and global level through our dual sponsorship, not to mention the
exposure we get at the actual tournament,' explains Stephen Hall, the
fast-food giant's UK sponsorship director.

'There is a global theme but then on a national level we lock in to
specific campaigns. For us, the focus is on our player escorts programme
through which we'll be taking 1500 children to the tournament. We've had
a phenomenal response to this promotion. The big advantage we have over
other sponsors is a physical touchpoint with consumers through our 1200
UK restaurants, which allow us to communicate our World Cup activity to
the 2.5m people who come to McDonald's every day.'

Different sponsors reap different benefits from an association with the
national team and some are unconcerned by the lack of a pitch-side
presence.

For Carlsberg sponsorship controller Gareth Roberts, the fact that the
tournament is being played in Germany will have little influence on its
sponsorship effort. Roberts' main focus is the majority of England fans
who will be watching on the sofa at home or in the pub, meaning the main
promotional opportunity is in the UK.

'From a tournament point of view, as long as England qualify for the
World Cup, Carlsberg has a real opportunity to drive sales,' says
Roberts.

'People don't follow the tournament, they follow England, and everything
we do is around Carlsberg being Beer England. We don't need to get close
to the World Cup in Germany when it's about driving sales in the
UK.'

It is as well that Carlsberg's efforts are geared toward the home
market, as any activity in Germany by non-World Cup sponsors will meet
with severe disapproval from FIFA. 'It has to protect its sponsors,'
says Roberts.

'But we get as much exposure through our FA sponsorship without breaking
the rules. FIFA is aware of our actions and we have good relations with
it.'

The area of sponsor protection is a quandary England team backers are
familiar with. Roberts says Carlsberg is continually watching its
competitors to make sure they do not overstep the mark. If it does, the
FA can be relied on to intervene.

One FA and England sponsor that will be out in force in Germany is
Nationwide, which is resurrecting its Fans Embassy roadshow used at
previous major tournaments. Its stalls will be based in towns where the
England team is playing, handing out advice to fans, with a Routemaster
bus as a focal point.

The building society is also developing a TV campaign and 148-page
booklet with a 100,000 print run. 'Although we didn't have as big a
budget as some of the other players in the tournament, it has not
stopped us being creative to secure awareness of Nationwide in
association with the England team,' says the brand's commercial
sponsorship manager, Chris Hull.

Kit deals

For non-FIFA sponsors, there is one way to be seen in the World Cup -
although it is open only to a very niche set of brands: for Umbro, being
the kit supplier to the England team allows its brand and products to be
seen on the players throughout the tournament.

Duncan Thomson, head of Umbro's FA division, explains that the deal
gives the brand worldwide exposure. 'We are an English brand that has
global appeal and we will align our association around the England
team,' he says. 'Our World Cup strategy will be a combination of
promoting England and running our "One love" campaign in Asia, France
and Spain.'

Most team sponsorship activity happens in the build-up to a tournament,
but there are ways to get coverage during the event, according to
Octagon's Carling. At Euro 2004, Nationwide sent a film crew out to
record fan snippets in and around the towns hosting games, before
passing them on to the news agencies. 'In practically every piece of
footage there was some kind of Nationwide branding - it was almost like
product placement,' he says.

As for which sponsor will make the most of its team sponsorship, Carling
believes there are two favourites: Nationwide and Pepsi. Both are likely
to be adventurous in their activity, given that their associations with
the FA come to an end after the World Cup. But while the temptation to
break the rules in order to get better exposure will undoubtedly be
strong, national team sponsors need to tread a fine line, as any minor
violation of the sponsorship rights will be enough for the FA or FIFA to
hand out a red card.

THE RICH LIST - TOP 10 TEAMS BY SPONSORSHIP INCOME



1. ENGLAND

Sponsorship income (pounds) 49,060,290

% of total turnover 24

Primary sponsors Umbro, McDonald's, Carlsberg, Nationwide, Pepsi



2. ITALY

Sponsorship income (pounds) 27,639,600

% of total turnover 48

Primary sponsors Puma, TIM, Mapei



3. FRANCE

Sponsorship income (pounds) 25,465,996

% of total turnover 44

Primary sponsors Adidas, Caisse d'Epargne, Brioche Pasquier, SFR



4. JAPAN

Sponsorship income (pounds) 16,583,760

% of total turnover 27

Primary sponsors Kirin, Adidas, Saison Card International, FamilyMart,

Fujifilm, JAL, Nissan



5. BRAZIL

Sponsorship income (pounds) 16,557,454

% of total turnover 61

Primary sponsors Vivo, AmBev, Coca-Cola, Nike



6. GERMANY

Sponsorship income (pounds) 10,364.850

% of total turnover 25

Primary sponsors Mercedes-Benz, Adidas, Coca-Cola, Lufthansa,

McDonald's, Siemens



7. SPAIN

Sponsorship income (pounds) 8,669,161

% of total turnover 16

Primary sponsors Adidas, Toyota, Santa Monica Sports, Mahou



8. USA

Sponsorship income (pounds) 7,690,987

% of total turnover 39

Primary sponsors Budweiser, Gatorade, The Home Depot, Nike, Hyundai,

Panasonic



9. NETHERLANDS

Sponsorship income (pounds) 7,341,078

% of total turnover 17

Primary sponsors ING, Adecco, Heineken, Nuon, Tele2, Staatsloterij,

Super de Boer, Nike



10. SWITZERLAND

Sponsorship income (pounds) 1,777,723

% of total turnover 32

Primary sponsors Sporttip, Swisscom, Puma, Credit Suisse, Carlsberg,

SwissLife

RISING STAR - AUSTRALIA

The Socceroos have caught the attention of Australia and its marketers.
Qualifying for its first World Cup has led to a multimillion-pound deal
with National Australia Bank.

RISING STAR - GHANA

With the 2010 World Cup heading to Africa, marketers are beginning to
invest in the continent's teams. Ghana, the team of the moment, has
netted a £7m deal with Puma.

1950: India pulled out of the tournament in Brazil as FIFA refused to
let them play in bare feet

1994: Switzerland and the US contested the first indoors match, at the
Pontiac Silverdome in Detroit.