São Paulo – Emirates, the state-owned airline of Dubai, has signed a sponsorship agreement with Spanish team Real Madrid for the coming five years. The announcement of the partnership was on Thursday (29) at the Spanish football club’s stadium, Santiago Bernabéu, in Madrid, by team president Florentino Pérez and by Emirates president Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum.
By the agreement, the airline from Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, will transport the team’s players worldwide, as well as promoting events with the club and sponsoring the Real Madrid hospitality program. In exchange, Emirates should print its brand on the team stadium and increase its presence in the Spanish capital, associating its name to the traditional football team. Emirates will not sponsor the Real shirt.
Apart from the new partner, Emirates sponsors English football team Arsenal. The airlines has named the stadium and has its logo on the team shirt. Emirates also sponsors HSV, in Germany, Paris Saint-German, in France, Olympiacos, in Greece, and Milan, in Italy. Now it will sponsor the team in which Portuguese striker Cristiano Ronaldo, the Spanish national team’s goalkeeper, Iker Casillas, and the Brazilian midfielder Kaká play.
The president of the team said he is pleased with the agreement, as it brings together two global bands “and leaders”. “I believe that we are faced with the start of intense relations that will bring the club closer to its millions of supporters worldwide,” he said.
To Salem Obaidalla, the Emirates operations senior vice president for Europe and Russia, the partnership with Real Madrid "is fantastic". “We strongly believe this [partnership] is a strategic alliance bridging us with our many followers all over the world.” Apart from football, the company sponsors golf, rugby, tennis and horse racing tournaments. The airline is also an International Football Association (Fifa) partner.
*Translated by Mark Ament
