The Legal Protection and Regulation of Sponsorship Rights in English Football

Sponsorship is a form of promotional communication with the basic goal to persuade. Researchers have offered a series of benefits for the sponsor that can be achieved through selecting the ideal property, including, obtaining brand exposure, achieving brand recall, enhancing brand image, and communicating a brand theme in the hope of obtaining sales. However, differentiating the brand from competitors is a distinctive tactic essential for realising a competitive advantage. To assist with brand differentiating, corporate sponsors negotiate for exclusivity within a product or service category. Product category exclusivity acts to eliminate corporations within a sponsor’s product or service category from the sponsored subject. Therefore, sponsors pay a premium price to achieve such a restricted promotional position. However, instances of competing sponsorship interests within a football event or league have become common as broadcasters, footballers and stadiums owners all pursue corporate support. Where these separate actors in the same sports marketplace have not collaborate effectively to limit sponsor category conflicts, a sponsoring brand may find it difficult to establish unique image association within the football domain apart from category competitors. This questions the level of exclusivity football associations and related enterprises grant to their official sponsors. The purpose of the research is to raise the issue and debate the practice of selling multiple sponsorship rights within a particular product or service category in football competitions. Ambush marketing has emerged as an effective weapon in the arsenal of marketing department seeking to associate their brands with sporting events. The research analyses the most effective and common strategies of ambush marketing in English football, and examines the legal mechanisms available in the United Kingdom to prevent the likelihood of suffering damage to official sponsors by third party ambush tactics. The research concludes with the extent to which the legal system in the United Kingdom could help to protect the exclusive rights of the sponsor in English Football.