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.