BenQ Corp, Taiwan's biggest handset maker, has agreed to sponsor Real Madrid from next season through 2010. Having bought the unprofitable cellphone unit of Siemens AG's on 1 October, for €250 million, BenQ appears to also have inherited the German company's sponsorship rights to the Spanish football club. Siemens has sponsored the club since 2002 and its current contract expires next June.
Real Madrid will wear the BenQ-Siemens brand on its shirts and display the logo at its Santiago Bernabeu stadium, BenQ said in a statement. Spanish sports daily Marca reported the five year contract to be worth €100 million.
The association with BenQ will boost Real Madrid in Asia, the team's marketing director Jose Angel Sanchez said in The Taipei Times. The team went on tours of China and Japan in the last two years to boost its brand.
South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co reportedly pays £10 million a year to put its name on English Premier League club Chelsea's shirt.
UPDATE
According to The Independent (UK), the BenQ shirt sponsorship will earn Real Madrid €24 million per season on top of €40 million a year received from Adidas which makes the club's all-white strip. (13 Nov)
This compares to £14.7 million Italian club Juventus is paid by the oil company Tamoil, which is owned by Al Saadi Gaddafi, son of the Libyan dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi (the Gaddafis also own 7 per cent of the club) the £11.4 million a year Bayern Munich gets from T-Mobile, Chelsea's previously mentioned £10 million deal with Samsung and Manchester United's £9 million a season from Vodafone.
Real Madrid will wear the BenQ-Siemens brand on its shirts and display the logo at its Santiago Bernabeu stadium, BenQ said in a statement. Spanish sports daily Marca reported the five year contract to be worth €100 million.
The association with BenQ will boost Real Madrid in Asia, the team's marketing director Jose Angel Sanchez said in The Taipei Times. The team went on tours of China and Japan in the last two years to boost its brand.
South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co reportedly pays £10 million a year to put its name on English Premier League club Chelsea's shirt.
UPDATE
According to The Independent (UK), the BenQ shirt sponsorship will earn Real Madrid €24 million per season on top of €40 million a year received from Adidas which makes the club's all-white strip. (13 Nov)
This compares to £14.7 million Italian club Juventus is paid by the oil company Tamoil, which is owned by Al Saadi Gaddafi, son of the Libyan dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi (the Gaddafis also own 7 per cent of the club) the £11.4 million a year Bayern Munich gets from T-Mobile, Chelsea's previously mentioned £10 million deal with Samsung and Manchester United's £9 million a season from Vodafone.
See also: Is Real Madrid now the world's 'biggest club'? (4 Oct) and Barcelona turns down Asian sponsor for its shirt (7 Oct).