La Liga's extension on Tuesday of its int’l partnership with Nike will not only continue the deal, but also see the partnership evolve to include promotion of the league and grassroots work. La Liga Sales & Marketing General Dir Adolfo Bara said that the emphasis was on finding a "sports partner" and expanding the relationship with Nike, which previously just supplied the league with its official ball. Bara: "On top of negotiating and discussing how much the price would be, we introduced two things in the contract with them." Those new aspects of the deal will see Nike promote La Liga -- with mentioning or images -- in campaigns in at least eight of its global directories. He added that one of his league’s goals when entering a new market is to share football knowledge on training and grassroots development. "We as La Liga identified, three years ago, when we talked about going global, that the best way to enter a new market was not trying to find sponsors or sell things, it was what we call 'sharing,'" Bara said. "When it comes to sharing, the best thing we have to share is our football knowledge." To achieve that goal, La Liga will now work with Nike on such efforts. The league and brand already collaborated on pilot projects in China and the U.S. -- where a long-term technical partnership was signed last August with US Club Soccer. In China, that meant a joint training program to help educate nearly 2,000 of the country’s coaches following President Xi Jinping’s government’s move to make football courses mandatory in schools.
