Fifa slashes sponsorship rates in World Club deal

Football’s world governing body, Fifa, has been forced to slash the price of its sponsorship packages for the inaugural World Club Championships, in an 11th-hour agreement.

The deals were struck over the new year period after it emerged that the championships, which begin this week, had not secured a single sponsor just three weeks from kick off (MW December 16). Manchester United’s first game is today (Thursday).

ISL Worldwide, the company handling the sales of marketing rights, confirms that it has signed up seven of Fifa’s existing “family” of sponsors: Budweiser, Coca-Cola, MasterCard, Fujifilm, McDonald’s, JVC, and Hyundai.

The seven are understood to have paid about £350,000 each, totalling £2.5m.

ISL was originally aiming to sell eight £600,000 packages, worth about £5m (MW September 9).

A source at one of the sponsors claims that his company has yet to sign on the dotted line because the deal was agreed at the last minute.

The BBC has bought the UK broadcasting rights for the event. Manchester United’s first three games will be shown live on BBC1. All other matches will be broadcast on BBC Choice.