Football Business: La Liga club Sevilla reach three-year kit sponsorship deal with Nike

Congrats to La Liga’s own Sevilla, as the have just announced a new three-year kit sponsorship with Nike.

Nike will take pole position as the Seville club’s technical sponsor until the end of the 2020/21 season, creating the squad’s match and training kit as well as a range of new merchandise for the clubs fanbase.

Rival and domestic brand New Balance has seen its five-year deal with Sevilla expire at the end of this 2017-18 season, with Sevilla providing confirmation over their impending partnership with Nike following several months of negotiation between both parties.

The financial terms of the contract have yet to be disclosed, but reports in Spain describe the deal as “more than favourable” for Sevilla.

Sevilla finished this past 2017/18 La Liga season in seventh place, ensuring qualification for the UEFA Europa League in the 2018/19 season. Even though they have won this competition three times in the last four years, we wonder if Nike will be pushing the club to have consistent top 4 aspirations in La Liga.

Do you think Sevilla will have the consistent performance needed in domestic and foreign competition to eventually keep their Nike partnership after 2021?

Barcelona win 5-0 in the Copa del Rey final

Sevilla, who have been a strong team this season, succumbed to a 5-0 defeat against Barcelona when it mattered the most. Sevilla had enjoyed a great campaign that saw them defeat Manchester United in the round of 16 of the UEFA Champions League before being eliminated by Bayern Munich by one away goal. The club also made their way into this year’s Copa del Rey final which is equivalent to the FA Cup in England or the Nedbank Cup in South Africa.

Barcelona looked like they were playing with a different team as they went into the break with a 3-0 advantage. New signing Philippe Coutinho made a sprint into the box on the counter from a brilliant pass by Ter Stegen and drew the keeper to his feet before chipping a pass to his former Liverpool teammate, Luis Suarez to score on the 13th minute. Iniesta then played a delightful one-two with Jordi Alba before he made a brilliant back-heel pass to Messi who shot into the roof of the net for the second goal of the game. Suarez again made it on the score sheet after playing another one-two with Messi but this time from outside the box before sprinting for a short distance before meeting Messi’s pass which he calmly converted into the net. The second half was not disappointing either. Barcelona was out to prove that they are the best and they can beat Sevilla effortlessly. It is like they agreed that all the goals of the night have to come through their tiki-taka passes as this time Iniesta played with Messi before making a fake shot that got everyone on their feet. Iniesta then smashed the ball into the empty net having already dealt with the keeper with his trickery. The Spaniard played a crucial role in this match which some are saying it could be his last final before leaving Barcelona. Philippe Coutinho was handed the penalty to score on the 69th minute which completed the scores for the match. Barcelona ran out 5-0 victors and lifted the Copa del Rey for the 30th time.

Olympiakos President banishes First Team players

On a night when Bayern Munich came from behind and won 2-1 against Sevilla, the buzz around the UCL couldn’t have been better. However, we had to look elsewhere and find out about the most interesting stories in football that happened in the past few days. Evangelos Marinakis had sacked three managers before Olympiakos slipped to third following a 1-1 draw with mid-table Levadiakos in the Greek League. This was because he believed the managers were at fault for the team’s poor performances this season but that did not last forever. He realized that his players were the ones who were not doing enough. In case you were wondering what happens to football players when they do not perform to their expectations, the President of Olympiakos has two ways of dealing with the problem. First, you banish them from playing for the first team. Marinakis banished his first-team players for the remaining 4 games and replaced them with youth players who love Olympiakos and the supporters much more than they do.

He is quoted to have said that, “[You care more about] your nice houses, your cars. You don’t care about the team. I and the rest of the fans have tolerated you for long enough. You will leave today and go on holiday.”

This is one of the most humiliating things that a player can go through during his playing career. The players have been forced to step aside and watch the young boys take charge. Next up, the president also fined the players. It is believed that he fined them $492 000 as a punishment. Olympiakos won the league 19 times in the last 21 years. They are used to dominating in football which explains their president’s harsh reaction. Do you think this is a fair punishment for the players?

Champions League Quarter-Final Overview: Sevilla vs Bayern Munich

Key Points

• Bayern will be brimming with confidence after demolishing Dortmund in Der Klassiker over the weekend.

• Sevilla may feel hard done by their result against Barcelona after conceding two late goals from a winning position of 2-0.

• Heynckes will have seen what happened to Mourinho and Manchester United last round after leaving Seville with what was seen as a cautiously optimistic 0-0 draw.

Fortune favors the bold they say. But whether or not the Bavarians have been bold, it’s debatable. What’s not debatable is that they have been favored somehow, perhaps by the gods of the UCL draw. Bayern Munich played Turkish side Besiktas which they embarrassed 8-0 on aggregate and now they play Manchester United's hangman, Sevilla, who have looked inconsistent at best this season. In truth, they can actually beat anyone on their day. The Manchester club had to force a 0-0 draw at Sevilla after some superb shot stops by goalkeeper David De Gea and two late strikes by Ben Yedder at Old Trafford ensured the red devils would fall again at the hands of a Spanish opposition.

Over the weekend, Sevilla almost humbled UCL and La Liga title favorites to their first defeat of the Spanish League only to make some mistakes in the final 4 minutes and walk away with a point. I am tipping Bayern Munich to walk away with this one but it won’t be as easy as most people anticipate.

Klopp hopefull ahead of Champions League date with Liverpool

As the debate about Salah vs De Bruyne for Player of the Year brews up, the Champions League could not bring a better opportunity to evaluate the two players up close in a more competitive tournament. The two have been outstanding this season with Salah leading the scoring charts and De Bruyne likewise leading the assist charts. Both players have been crucial to their team’s performances this season and Manchester City are looking the more threatening team ahead of the tie against Liverpool. Jurgen Klopp spoke to the media today with a message of warning to Guardiola and his team that his team can hurt them. Manchester City travel to Anfield on Wednesday and Klopp is looking to make things as uncomfortable as possible for the Premier League Champions Elect. The Liverpool manager is basing his argument on his high-pressing style of play which often gets the opposition to panic and lose the ball in dangerous areas. It will be interesting how this would affect a City team that is based on Pep’s principles of playing the ball from the back.

Klopp is quoted to having said, “The way we attack the opponent, the way we defend high is unpleasant (four our opposition). If we do that they will have some difficulty coping with it.”

It is clear that the Liverpool manager is trying to play mind games ahead of the clash and it is such a shame that the master of mind games, Jose Mourinho, and his team are already out of the competition having been knocked out by Sevilla in the round of 16. It is important to note that Liverpool once suffered a heavy 5-0 defeat at the hands of this Manchester City team in September and they will be looking to redeem themselves once more after being the first team to defeat Guardiola’s team in the league with a 4-3 win in January. Klopp is expecting more goals. We are expecting many goals in this clash. Brace yourself for one of the juiciest clashes in the UCL.  

UEFA Champions League draw could bring out explosive matches

Spanish Marca has been looking at the UEFA Champions League draw and assessing top-notch clashes that could be juicy for the tournament in the quarterfinals. It has been confirmed that former AC Milan and Chelsea forward, Andrey Shevchenko will be the one to reveal the balls for the draw on Friday. Only 5 of the 8 teams left have won this competition before with Real Madrid leading the rest with 12 titles. Bayern Munich, Barcelona and Liverpool have all lifted the trophy on 5 different occasions. Juventus have only two. It is important to note that AS Roma, Manchester City and Sevilla have not yet enjoyed much success in this European competition but some of these teams have reached the semis and final of this tournament before. Some of the potential ties after the draw could be an El Classico which is Real Madrid vs Barcelona. This fixture is the biggest rivalry in the world and would be ideal to be reserved for the latter part of the competition like the semifinals. Next up could be Real Madrid vs Manchester City. Pep Guardiola has undeniably set up a fierce team that is capable of beating anyone on their day and it would be nice to see how they fare against the defending champions. Visit the link to see the rest of the potential fixtures.

Sevilla grinded out a 2-1 win to join Madrid in the UCL quarters

A late show from Sevilla downed Manchester United who were below par on Tuesday night. Ben Yedder scored two goals in quick succession, one at the 74th and the other at the 77th minute to secure a comfortable 2 goal advantage before Romelu Lukaku scored for Jose Mourinho’s team on the 84th minute. This result can come as a shocker to a few, but those that followed the club during its Europa League campaigns should know that Sevilla are a well-disciplined team that can bring the game to you from the first minute till the final whistle. Manchester United have learned that the hard way as they have been knocked out of the competition which many hoped that Jose Mourinho would mount a challenge in. In other news, AS Roma also qualified into the last 8 teams in the tournament after beating Shakhtar Donetsk 1-0 thanks to an Edin Dzeko goal. This means that they have qualified on away goal’s rule having scored one goal in the first leg of the clash. That’s a wrap! The rest of the teams will be confirmed on Wednesday.