David Beckham a football player or just a brand?

You can see the name of David Beckham everywhere. From the front cover of magazine to giant billboard or television big screen. Beckham has become a massive marketing icon for the past decade. Although his age is fast catching up on his footballing career, he does not seem to lose much spark in marketing world just yet. Thats why PSG wants to sign the English megastar this week, is he coming back to Europe or will he sign a new cortact with his current club LA Galaxy. You may think why does a French club wants to sign a old football player like Beckham?
I say its just the marketing of football rather than footballing reasons. Of coure Beckham can't bring the club instant succes, the only thing that matters is international fame for the club and more jersey shirts will be sold.
Paris SG are since last summer owned by Nassar Al-Khelaifa from Qatar. He wants to give PSG a new image. The club has been forgotten in internatinal football. The club hasn't won a the French tittle since the 1993/1994 season and are now hungry for succes. Nassar Al-Khelaifa already bought the Argentinian talent Javier Patore from Palermo for 43 million euro. And today PSG appointed Carlo Ancelotti as the new manager, how gets a record salary of 6 million a year. Big plans and dreams are being build right now in Paris.
So is David Beckham a football player or just a  a marketing strategy to boost the shirt sales. I say its just a marketing strategy. Because football is arguably one of the most important sports in the world, and the marketing of football has become an increasingly important issue, as clubs and product owners need to generate more revenue from the sport. In a wider context, football marketing has also become a benchmarking standard for other sports.

Early Champions League exit can cost Manchester United £20m

While London clubs Arsenal and Chelsea continue to mix it with the cream of the continent, United and City, the premier leugue's top two from Manchester have both crashed out of the UEFA Champions League. What does this mean for the English giants Manchester United and Manchester City?
For the Citizens as City is called in England, this means nothing, as it was their first apperance in the Champions League and the club is still builing to become an European top team. As for United it was a disastrous knock-out, not only where they humiliated by Swiss champions fc Basel. Manschester United are know the first team to fall at the first group stage after reaching the previous season's final and what is more important the club also will missout  millions of money prices.

The early exit could cost the club in the region of £20m, according to a leading football finance expert.  In the Champions League the further you go in the competition obviously the more TV money you get.
 Last year United reached the final, for getting to the final, they got about 53m euros [£45m] in TV income and this year they got about 18m euros [£15.3m] less. But if they win the Europa League - a big if - you get £4m.(bbc.co.uk/football) This is why every football club wants to play in the UEFA Champions League, because that's where the big money is, where the biggest companies like Master Card, Ford, Sony Playstation, UniCredit and Heineken are sponsors. The competition is shown in 220 countries and reaches over 4 billion football viewes all over the world. So a big loss fot United, who are know missing the TV money and marketing buzz that these tournaments bring. For Manschester City they are fine because they're bankrolled by Abu Dhabi, so financially they can swallow it up.

Kuala Lumpur to Birmingham

Last nights game between Aston Villa and Arsenal finished in 1-2 victory for the Gunners from London. The first half was good, Aresnal where leading by 0-1 thanks to of cousre the unstoppable Dutchman van Persie. The second half was poor, anyways what is noticed  was the shirt sponsor of the home team. There where Chinese words on it and under it, it said Genting Casinos. I looked it up and Genting Casinos is part of Genting Group an Asian conglomerate with headquartes in Kuala Lupur, Malaysia. I thouth why would an Asian Casino sponsor an English football club? I did not know that Genting UK is the largest casino operator in the United Kingdom. And more important is that the local Casino is just 1 mile from Villa Park Stadium.

So now they where doing smart marketing not only is it in English on the shirts but also in Chinese for the Asian market. Genting Group announced that the sponsorship is for an initial two years, covering the 2011/2012 and 2012/2013 seasons.In June 2011. Genting UK was awarded a casino licence for a 55,000 sq-meter mixed-use facility in Birmingham. In the West Midlands altogether, they have five casinos. theye got about 300 employees in Birmingham and 100 in the rest of the West Midlands. the
development is in partnership with the NEC Groupand is currently under review for planning permission.(www.yogonet.com)

the FIFA World Cup for clubfootball why?

Yesterday Spanish football club fc Barcelona won the FIFA world club football in Yokohama, Japan. By trashing Brazilian site Santos 4-0. A great macht yes, worth seeing, again yes. Then why is every big European side less interested in this world cup tournament, in contrast to the other continents, like Santos from Brazil. I think its the price money that motivates them. Fc Barcelona already a rich club do not need the money that bad and the other South American clubs do need the money very bad.
The tournament is prestige one to win, it gets hosted every year and evey two yeara it moves to another continent. Nissan, Toyota, Fly Emirates, Sony, Coca Cola and Adidas all sponsor this tounament that took place in Japan. So for Japan that still suffer from this years tsunami its als a good marketing opportunity to show the world that they are coming out of the economic crises.
Next year Japan will host the last FIFA world Cup for club football then the tournament is coming to mine motherland Morocco. Can't wait to see how Morocco is going to profit and promote this for the world.
Is the FIFA world Cup for club football necessary, yes. Because i think its a great marketing opportunity for the county and the South American clubs how can use the money.