How Brands Show Up Around Soccer

In this lesson,

we're going to cover soccer sponsorships and how brands activate around soccer,

and specifically at FIFA World Cup™.

To get started,

let's first look at the soccer ecosystem in North America.

Soccer might look simple on the pitch,

but behind the scenes, there are different levels and properties that brands can partner with.

In Global Events 101,

Tiffany Stone took you through the key players behind the scenes

and covered the basics around teams, leagues, governing bodies, and sponsors.

Let's unpack those in a bit more detail

and with specifics

related to soccer in North America.

Teams,

sometimes referred to as clubs in soccer.

These are the organizations like Atlanta United FC, or Montreal Roses FC

that fans cheer for locally.

Leagues,

the group of teams that play each other over a course of a season.

On the men's side,

there's MLS that has both American and Canadian teams

and NWSL and NSL on the women's side.

Federations,

these are the national governing bodies

like the US Soccer Federation

or the Mexican Football Federation

that oversee the sport within a country.

This includes fielding all national teams

from the senior men and women's teams

to youth levels

and other expanded teams

like beach soccer, futsal, or deaf national teams.

Confederations.

These are regional bodies that govern soccer across multiple countries.

For example,

Concacaf oversees soccer across North and Central America and the Caribbean,

Including the US, Mexico, and Canada.

FIFA.

FIFA is the global governing body for all of soccer worldwide.

It oversees international competitions

like the FIFA World Cup™

and ensures the sport is played consistently across the world.

While it may sound complex,

soccer is really unique

because fans can have multiple loyalties.

They may support a local club and their national team

with the same passion

or even follow clubs playing abroad in England or Spain,

and there's no real off season.

With all of these different competitions,

there's always a match,

qualification

or tournament happening somewhere.

Brands can get involved with soccer and create a connection with the FIFA World Cup™

by sponsoring national teams, confederations, FIFA, or even players.

The biggest brands

Like Coca‑Cola

may have sponsorships across all of these.

We won't get into the nitty gritty of intellectual property again,

but talk through how brands take a different approach

depending on if their goals are local or global.

(upbeat music)