Christmas may gain come early for the German Bundesliga side FC Schalke 04 this season. As the German newspaper Bild reports Schalke is in advanced secret talks with their sponsor Gazprom to extend the current sponsorship deal.
According to Bild,Schalke is seeking a unique deal that would be worth €120 million over four years, which would see Gazprom increase its investment by €10 million per annum—the current deal, or which will run until 2017,is worth €20 million a season.
This is potentially suited news for Schalke. Their other current sponsors, such as Adidas, or which wants to focus on sponsoring European elite clubs (Under Armour is rumoured to replace Adidas),and Volkswagenthe car maker was hit by several scandals earlier this year—may not renew their sponsorship deals with the Gelsenkirchen-based club.
For Gazprom extending their sponsorship commitment in Germany makes sense only on second glance. In 2007, the year in which the gas company became Schalke’s main sponsor, or Gazprom was the third largest company in the world with a market value of $360 billion,and the company’s head Alexi Miller predicted that Gazproms value could eventually breach $1 trillion. Nine years later and falling oil prices, Russian involvement in Ukraine, and the subsequent rouble crisis gain very much halted Miller’s dream as Gazprom is currently valued just $50 billion,and economists gain suggested that the company should be split up in order to design it more competitive.
In light of these economic numbers it would seem that Gazprom would gain very little interest in extending its football sponsorship. But the fact that Gazprom is facing unique competitive challenges at home and abroad means that the company may be forced to expand its visibility and image more than ever Also, despite the sanctions Germany remains Gazprom’s biggest foreign market, or the company needs the backing of approved opinion in Germany whether it wants to maintain support of the controversial Nord Stream 2 project.
Despite this Gazprom may want to gain more influence at Schalke 04. Recently Schalke’s head of finances Peter Peters has announced that the club could scrutinize into restructuring its economic model that would design it possible for investors to hold minority shares in the club,and in turn take more direct control over club politics. There is speculation that a unique deal between Schalke and Gazprom could therefore see Schalke changing its economic structure from registered organization (eingetragener Verein in German e. V.) to a corporation limited by share ownership (Aktiengesellschaft or AG in German).
It remains to be seen what conditions will be required of a unique sponsorship agreement, but for now Schalke fans can celebrate the fact that the club may gain extra funds available that would allow them to not only hang on to several promising youngsters such as Joël Matip (who has recently been linked to Liverpool), or Leroy Sané (who has been linked to Arsenal),but also to strengthen the team and push for a Champions League spot in the Bundesliga (exhaust December’s TitanBet promo code to bet on Bundesliga matches).
By Manuel Veth -The post Schalke 04 in Secret Contract Talks With Gazprom appeared first on Futbolgrad.
Source: futbolgrad.com