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Sponsorship in Sport: A Waste of Space?
How do players arrange their sponsorship deals?
Barcelona FC (commonly known as 'Barça') are keen to leverage as much revenue as possible if and when they do surrender their shirt's famous sponsorship-free status. They point to the need for a sponsor to reflect and enhance the club's values and culture. Importantly, too, a shirt sponsor would have to be acceptable to Nike. The need to keep existing sponsors happy may limit a club's ability to negotiate new sponsorship deals. In Barça's case this means that any shirt sponsor must be vetted by Nike. But for the players at the top of the game there are other considerations.
Football stars - worried about more than just the car they drive? © iStock.com
In June 2003, when Real Madrid secured the transfer of David Beckham, the player had to agree to the club controlling 50% of his personal sponsorship contracts. Real demand at least a 50:50 division of their players' image rights. As a 'galactico' (one of the club's superstars), Beckham, along with Ronaldo (the Brazilian), Zidane, Raul and Figo, earn lower basic salaries than some other squad members, but their earnings from exploiting their image rights earn them far more than the non-galactico players.