Arsenal have added to their portfolio of regional partners by striking a deal with African mobile network operator Airtel.
The agreement, which affords the company the rights to use Gunners merchandising, hospitality and content in Nigeria, Zambia, Ghana, Uganda and Rwanda, is the second to be done in recent weeks with Malta Guinness also penning a lucrative sponsorship deal.
With a friendly match against Nigeria set to be played at the Abuja National Stadium in early August, it’s obvious that Ivan Gazidis is leading an aggressive marketing push on the continent as the Gunners look to take advantage of their popularity in the region.
Speaking about the latest deal, Arsenal’s head of global partnerships Vinai Venkatesham said:
“This is the second long-term partnership arrangement to arise from the continent and we look forward to developing a number of exciting initiatives with Airtel, starting with our forthcoming tour to Nigeria in August. “This underlines the depth of our following in Africa and how the profile of the club continues to grow internationally.”
As part of the contract Arsenal will also support the Airtel Rising Stars football programme and provide UEFA-trained coaches to help the initiative.
In addition to the two regional partnerships, the Gunners also have eight official partners including betsson, Carlsberg, Lucozade, O2, Citroen, Thomas Cook Sport, EA Sports and Indesit and two lead partners in Nike and Emirates.
It is expected that this portfolio will continue to grow as chief commercial officer Tom Fox spearheads further global initiatives with a view to spreading awareness of the Arsenal brand.
Africa Calling. That is about ten times better a pun than anything I read in real journalism. Cheers
And about 100 times better than you’ll see in “Let’s make up shit about RvP leaving” journalism……
The Commercial team brought in by Gazidis is finally bearing some fruit. We really need to get the commercial side on par with Chel$ki. Our influence and presence in Asia and Africa needs more work!
I’m certain in Africa Arsenal is the most popular club team. In fact I have never met an African in London who doesn’t support Arsenal…
Times have changed and African/Nigerians in London don’t reflect what really goes on here.
Chelsea’s spending and recent success, coupled with Man U’s dominance have cause a massive drop in Arsenal supporters here in Nigeria. Although like most football fans, many are fair weather fans who choose to support ‘the winning team’ and I’m happy they are gone. I think it’s the same around the world though…
Ok. I am now switching to Airtel
Good, you own a phone.
That’s the kind of shite joke we’ve all come to expect from the likes of John Terry.
Not my day I guess. Off to legrove.
42 million fans!! great. I got 2 kids coming up so make that 42000002. (I think.)
let’s fill the world.
Its great to hear. Some more cash coming in. And its great to hear that an Indian company is in partnership with Arsenal. Hopefully they’ll partner in India as well.
Airtel is an Indian telecommunication company. In South Asia, Airtel has tie-up with Man united and has recently started airing a commercial which advertises – a football selection trials which will take kids to Man united for training.
I think Arsenal has more following in Africa than in Asia, so Airtel has tied up with them for African region.
Well not really the whole African region….airtel-Kenya has a tie-up with Man-useless with commercial and all.
But Arsenal following is definitely bigger in Africa.
When I was in Thailand it was Man U everywhere, deals with Singha, mobile companies etc… Rooney et al on large billboard adverts.
Chelsea wasn’t so prominent but a lot of locals wearing t-shirts.
Hardly anything at all Arsenal related. 🙁
Anything about the money wa are getting from these deals?
Airtel also has a very similar partnership with Manchester United, but for South Asia. The Rising Stars initiative has already been launched there..
Yeah, the ads for it are horrible.
Btw, the worst part is, I went to that site and on its home page I found Nani, Evra and Chicharito. This is just bad. Hope they change it to Arsenal players soon.
Or and i forgot to add this. With Arsenal being the most popular club in Africa (outside south africa), it was a good move on the part of the marketing team to exploit the raw market. You’ld be shocked how much the club would reap if they toured countries like Uganda and Kenya.
Unlike Asia and America where clubs like madrid, barca, man u have a bigger following, this is the one place where the Arsenal are undisputed number one. Though man u have quite a few cunts who closely follow
These commercial deals explains the signing of Podolski & Giroud.
We should go to Nigeria every year! 🙂
Bye bye mtn,hello Airtel!
AIRTEL is an Indian company which also operates in AFRICA…it sponsors MAN UTD in the INDIAN region.
i would say Arsenal and Chelsea have the largest fanbases in Nigeria, followed by Utd and Barca/Real. Chelsea/Samsung have definitely done well in regards to advertising, Drogba is on many billboards in Lagos
They may wan’t to start taking those down then, no?
I am glad I use Airtel, therefore dont need to make the switch.
Good news!
All income generated in this manner is essential should we be serious in taking on the oil giants.
When compared to Bayern Munich our income is shoddy. They are a good example to follow. Obviously the fact that they have multiple European cups but this is something for us to remedy.
Urgently.
But mtn is more effecient
This is great news 😀
Manu also has a sponsorship with DHL in India (IDK about Singapore, Malaysia etc), I think some thing like that might be next. Although hopefully they will make better ads. Even Manu fans hate the DHL-Manu ads.
We are not the most popular in North Africa. My Family is Algerian/Tunisian and they are not big supporters or Arsenal. They love Barcelona and more French teams.
Arsenal don’t seem to be doing much in America other than having games on TV. Not sure why. The owner is American, the President came from an American league and our Marketing Chief is American. No tours, no major advertising campaigns, nothing.
That’s a pretty good point. Didn’t Manu go to America last year?
So?
If you live in the New York area and you have the YES Network than you can watch Arsenal TV during the season. (Mainly during the Yankees Off-season)
Also they sent the youth team to the Dallas Cup in 2011. Not sure about 2012.
You have to win the youth league for that invite. It’s like getting into the old Champion’s League!
What is going on behind Ivan in that photo? Looks like some kind of surgical operation on somebody’s arm.
AFC crest is getting tattooed onto a forearm.
Is that Giroud’s forearm?
I thought Airtel is a player?! New George Finidi 🙂
China is the biggest market to dig into. with a population of 1,338,300,000 you cant go wrong.
Seems like Arsenal Commercial target is Asia & Africa. I wouldn’t blame them for not trying in the Americas. Spanish teams(cuntolona, madrid), man utd,chelski seems well rooted there.
[…] non-football related Arsenal stuff, the club announced a commercial tie-up with mobile phone company Airtel. They’re an Indian company and this deal focuses on their African market, so it’s a […]
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Good move by the Arse. Whereas there are so many fairweather EPL fans in Africa, the committed support base for the Arsenal is simply unrivalled.
I am sure with all this extra money ticket prices will be frozen and a dearth off class A players will be on their collective ways into the Arsenal team 🙂
Only joking lets hope it brings some good to the region as well as helping arsenal
Glad to see Arsenal aren’t ‘resting on their laurels’ waiting for the big contracts to be re-negotiated in 2014.
Asia is definately going to be the growth area. Arsenal are popular in Asia as are Man U (deal with AirAsia means they’re everywhere) Chelsea aswell.
Not Spurs though. They’re basically nowhere.
In fact Spurs are so nowhere when the riots where on they didn’t even loot no hope lane but they did loot JJB Sports go figure that 1 out.
Jeez, who would want to be Lord Sugars ‘apprentice’ when the have almost zero global presence?
Up the Arsenal for a Chinese take-away!!!! 😉
Glad to hear these, the good news aren’t gonna stop forever for Arsenal amen.
I have an airtel line that I only use once in while but now knowing about this deal, it’s gonna be my default line and I know am contributing something to Arsenal FC’s pocket ☺☺☺.
It’s like a new signing!
Oh, hold on…
Does anyone know how much we’ll make from this deal?
[…] Airtel announces three year partnership agreement with Arsenal Football Club […]