Professional Football Sponsorship—Profitable or Profligate?

The results of this empirical study of the English Premier League and First Division indicate that the vast majority of companies express a very positive view of their experience with professional football sponsorship. However, there is evidence of a failure to employ a number of the techniques advocated in the literature. This suggests that for some companies opportunities exist for sponsorship to make an even greater contribution to their communication objectives. Key areas which need to be addressed are objective setting, evaluation, leverage and integration with other elements of the communication mix.