Barcelona and smartphone manufacturer Oppo on Tuesday made official the sponsorship agreement that they signed on May 31. The agreement is the largest investment ever made by a Chinese company for sponsorship of a European football club. Oppo unveiled the FC Barcelona Edition of the R7 Plus, which has been created to celebrate the three-year deal. The deal makes Oppo the club's official sponsor in the mobile telephones category for the next three years. It is Barcelona's first confirmed global sponsorship agreement in China (Barcelona). ... Liverpool announced that it signed a one-year partnership deal with CySEC regulated binary options broker Banc De Binary. The two parties did not disclose the financial details of the arrangement. However, industry sources estimate the deal to be worth around £1.5M ($2.3M) (FINANCE MAGNATES, 9/7). ... The Norilsk Nickel metallurgical company became the official partner of the Russian Football Union and the Russian national football team. RFU President Vitaly Mutko said, "First and foremost, the company will help develop children's and youth football" (RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINES, 9/7). ... The Santos Tour Down Under named Singapore Airlines its new int'l airline partner. South Australia has been featured in the airline's Silver Kris in-flight magazine since Sept. 1 (Tour Down Under). ... Bundesliga club Schalke opened an online store for fans in the U.S. on Thursday. American fans can purchase merchandise on schalke04store.com (Schalke).
GREEN LIGHT: A Paddy Power advert calling on FIFA President Sepp Blatter to "f*** off already" has been cleared by a watchdog which ruled it was "unlikely to cause serious or widespread offence." The ad in the sport section of the London Guardian featured odds on the candidates for the 2015 FIFA presidential election. It showed an image of Blatter revealing the winner by holding up a piece of paper which said "Me," while text at the top stated, "Just f*** off already!" (BELFAST TELEGRAPH, 9/8).
DFB RENEWS WITH MCDONALD'S: The German Football Federation (DFB) reportedly extended its partnership with McDonald's. The fast food chain, which has been a DFB partner since '04, will remain a third-level partner until '18 (SOCCEREX, 9/8).
