Russian Sports Minister and Russian Football Union President Vitaly Mutko announced that the RFU "is close to signing a new sponsorship deal" to the amount of between 200M and 300M rubles ($2.5M-$3.8M). Mutko said, "We are about to sign a sponsorship contract with another partner. ... Everything is ready to sign an agreement. Perhaps, we will be even able to sign it tomorrow" (TASS, 1/27). ... Shanghai-based shipping maintenance and repair company Sajee Machinery partnered with German 3rd League football club Hansa Rostock.
According to Sponsors.de, "the deal initially runs until the end of the current season" and is worth in the region of €30,000 ($32,800) (SOCCEREX, 1/28). ... Coca-Cola South Africa "will remain the title sponsor" of SA Rugby’s Youth Week tournaments and an associate sponsor of the Vodacom Super Rugby competition until '18. Coca-Cola South Africa extended its partnership with the organization "for a further three years." As part of the SA Rugby Youth Weeks sponsorship, Coca-Cola South Africa "will also continue to fund" the Coca-Cola Schools of Excellence program, which aims to develop skilled rugby players from schools in previously disadvantaged communities across the country (RUGBY 15, 1/27). ... Jose Mourinho, who has yet to find another managerial job after being sacked by Chelsea, "at least hasn’t been deserted by his sponsors."
And Lipton Ice Tea "joined his roster of personal backers with a global commercial deal that was agreed while Mourinho was still at Stamford Bridge."
The endorsement, to be announced as part of an advertising campaign, "doesn’t depend on his having a club to manage" (London DAILY MAIL, 1/27).
SPORTQUAKE IN CHINA: U.K.-based sports marketing agency SportQuake "is opening offices in Beijing and Hong Kong in a bid to expand into the China sports market."
The company, which was founded 10 years ago by Matt House, a former commercial director of Tottenham, "wants to participate in the growing commercialization of sport in China."
It intends to bring western brands into the Chinese Super League, the country's first-division football league, "and introduce Chinese brands and ideas" into Europe's top football leagues (CHINA DAILY, 1/28).
