Month: July 2016

A-League club Melbourne Victory has secured home builder Simonds Homes as a front of shirt sponsor for their July matches against Serie A powerhouse Juventus at the MCG, and tour match against La Liga giants Atletico Madrid in Geelong.

Simonds Homes replaces collapsed education brand VIA as the Victory’s front of shirt sponsor when the club competes in the International Champions Cup.

“We are proud to be associated with such a strong and iconic Australian brand as Simonds Homes,” said Melbourne Victory CEO Ian Robson.

“The International Champions Cup brings Europe’s best teams to Australia and will provide global exposure for both the club and Simonds Homes.”

Simonds Homes Director, Rhett Simonds, added: “Simonds Homes is proud to partner with the Melbourne Victory brand and to be involved with international football games of this quality.”

English Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur is the fourth club competing in the 2016 edition of the International Champions Cup Australia.

The post Melbourne Victory secures International Champions Cup major sponsor appeared first on Sports Business Insider.

Source: AAP

Major media companies NZME and Fairfax have pulled out of sending journalists to cover the Rio Olympics over a scrap with Sky Television about using video footage on websites.

Senior sports reporter for Fairfax, Mark Geenty, tweeted on Thursday his company had withdrawn its accreditation for the eight-strong team which was meant to cover the Games.

Andrew Alderson, a senior sports reporter from NZME, also tweeted the NZ Herald sports team would not be going.

The two companies have been wrangling with Sky – which is paying for the New Zealand rights to cover Rio – and the New Zealand Olympic Committee about restricting and delaying the use of video footage on the nzherald.co.nz and stuff.co.nz websites.

NZME managing editor Shayne Currie said Sky’s conditions were “unduly restrictive”.

Stuff group executive editor Sinead Boucher said they objected to anti-competitive moves and an original condition that Sky commentators not be criticised.

She was also critical of the NZOC for letting Sky dictate terms.

Both companies said they would not send reporters, photographers or videographers to the Games but would still cover them.

The decision will mean less varied coverage of New Zealand athletes in Rio.

The NZOC wasn’t immediately available for comment.

The post NZME, Fairfax pull staff out of Rio Games appeared first on Sports Business Insider.

Source: AAP

The Australian Olympic Committee has described a recent Telstra advertising campaign as a “back-door” effort by the telco giant to associate itself with next month’s Games without having to pay for the privilege.

But Telstra has told a Federal Court judge that elements of its Rio campaign were explicitly green-lit by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

“This case is about as far from the notion of ambush marketing as one might conceive,” Telstra’s barrister Anthony McGrath SC told the court in Sydney on Thursday.

The AOC launched legal action over Telstra’s “I go to Rio” campaign, which included television commercials that featured a revamped version of the Peter Allen hit and described Telstra as the “Official Technology Partner” of the Seven Network.

Seven boasts the Australian broadcasting rights for the forthcoming games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Justice Michael Wigney noted on Thursday that internal documents demonstrated Telstra was “quite conscious” that it was walking a fine line between taking advantage of its position as a partner of Seven’s broadcast and an associated mobile app, without implying any official relationship with the Games themselves.

David Studdy SC, representing the AOC, told the Federal Court in Sydney on Thursday that Telstra had crossed that line.

He said Telstra had severed longstanding ties with the AOC and was now pondering: “How do we achieve through the back door, or through ambush marketing, what we were able to achieve at least through the past 22 years, without paying for it?”

He has accused Telstra of breaching the Olympic Insignia Protection Act, which governs the use of strictly-guarded symbols including the Olympic torch and rings, as well as the terms “Olympic” and “Olympics”.

But counsel for Telstra, Mr McGrath, said the IOC was aware of and approved the “forms and designations that were used” in Telstra’s Rio campaign, down to the placement of logos.

“What has been granted to Telstra by one extended hand of the Olympic movement is now sought to be taken away by the other,” Mr McGrath said.

Justice Wigney is expected to hand down his decision at a later date.

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