Adidas Tops European Football Sponsors List
Adidas, tops a new list of the best-known football sponsors in the five largest European football markets, ahead of Nike and Puma, according to a new report from Sport+Markt.
The ‘European Football Brands Top 20 2009/10’ survey asked over 3,000 European football fans which sponsors they knew of in European football and Adidas came out on top, whilst Nike and Puma took second and third place respectively.
Adidas provides the official kits to a number of top teams such as Liverpool, Chelsea and AC Milan and also has deals to provide the official balls for the Champions League and the World Cup.
The top twenty illustrates that there are highly varying sponsorship strategies European companies can use to gain the attention of European football fans.
Coca-Cola is ranked 4th, even though it has no jersey sponsorship engagements.
Audi was the most popular car sponsor, mainly due to the press coverage of the company’s purchase of shares in FC Bayern Munich.
Three of England’s ‘top four’ team sponsors follow – with Arsenal sponsor Emirates in 5th, Manchester United sponsor AIG are 6th and Liverpool’s kit sponsor Carlsberg are in 7th.
The rankings underline the communicative strength of shirt sponsorship of the Premier League’s top clubs.
