Gazprom is invited to the stadium – Sport – Kommersant

The Turkish publication Sozcu reported that the Istanbul football club Besiktas had agreed a contract with Gazprom. According to the agreement, the Russian company will become a sponsor of Besiktas, in particular, it will receive the rights to the name of the club’s stadium. In return, the team can count on €60 million over three years.

“Gazprom” in the near future may become one of the key partners of the Istanbul football club “Besiktas”. Edition Sozcu citing its sources in the team said that the parties agreed to sign a contract. The agreement provides for the transfer to Gazprom for three years of the right to name the Istanbul stadium for €60 million. The agreement also provides for the possibility of prolongation for another two years.

If Sozcu’s information is confirmed, then Besiktas can be congratulated on a great deal. Under the current agreement, the naming rights of the Istanbul stadium belong to Vodafone. The contract was signed back in 2013, three years before the opening of the arena, and brought Besiktas about €6 million annually. By the way, a good indicator, at the level of many top clubs in Europe (for example, Atlético Madrid receives a little more than €9 million from its stadium sponsor).

The new contract could bring Besiktas €20 million a year. And this is already the level of tops, such as Manchester City or Barcelona.

For example, Catalans under a contract with Spotify will receive exactly €20 million per year after the reconstruction of Camp Nou is completed. True, until then, the stadium rights will bring the Catalans only € 5 million a year.

Recall that Gazprom has been actively sponsoring football projects outside of Russia for a long time. So, since 2007 the company was a sponsor of the German football club Schalke 04, since 2018 a sponsor of the Champions League. For the 2018–2020 cycle, Gazprom paid more than €210 million to UEFA, and the contract was extended in 2021. The company also cooperated with the European Union of Football Associations at the European Championship 2020 and intended to cooperate at Euro 2024. In addition, the company has also partnered with the UEFA Super Cup, the Futsal Champions League and the UEFA Youth League finals.

Arnold Kabanov