I was sent an interesting little story from France this morning, which has got even more curious because the page that it was on, on L’Equipe, has now been taken offline.
It was about the French women’s football team, which is sponsored by Nike, and which recently qualified for next year’s Olympics.
Their sponsorship apparently includes a conflict clause that requires the team to pay a €10m fine in the event that it endorses a competitor in any way. As you will doubtless know, the Olympics next year are sponsored by Adidas, which means that teams will have to play in Adidas kit. Obviously, this means that in order to take part in the Olympics, the French women’s football team will have to pay a €10m fine.
The result? They won’t be taking part. They have decided not to enter, on the grounds that they can’t afford it.
And people say that gambling companies might have undue influence on sport.
Not totally on the subject, but do you have any views on the PR performance of Betfair, in the last yr or so.
There appears to have been a fair amount of negative press .. and I havent seen that much positive reply from Betfair. Is it their policy, to just shrug shoulders ?
I do, yes – but I don’t want to be like Edward Heath… Suffice to say I don’t understand their approach and I’m not privy to the reasons for their adopting it, if indeed they have done so consciously.
this story is the most ridiculous sporting event of the year.
Is Comical Ali busy these days?