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According to Sportingintelligence, matches featuring Manchester United account for almost 52 per cent of the entire English Premier League audience. From the 4.7billion of audience globally, Manchester United puts the club's total TV audience at 2.424 billion per season. Additionally, Manchester United is building its own social network and media outlet for the club's 500 million fan base, and will host multimedia content, including exclusive player interviews and other video content. The club now has 20 million fans on Facebook, more than any other Premier League club.

 

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As part of its two-year partnership with Manchester United Football Club (MUFC), du sent the two lucky winners of its MUFC SMS competition, Stephen Reece and Christopher Ridley, to watch the team play live at Old Trafford against Manchester City. The partnership aims at giving du customers a whole new level of interaction with MUFC, through exclusively-assigned content, competitions to win souvenirs and match tickets, and more. 

 

Already bringing customers closer to their sporting heroes, du’s first competition sent two lucky winners on an exciting trip to the UK to watch their favourite football team play at their iconic home ground.

 

Ahmad Aburahima, Vice President, Government Relations, du, presented with the winners with their prizes during a special ceremony held at du’s headquarters in Dubai Media City. Each winner received a travel pack, which consisted of two return business class flights to England with Emirates, three nights’ hotel accommodation for two people and tickets for two to watch Manchester United play Manchester City on October 23 in the luxury setting of Old Trafford’s Centennial Suites.

 

“We would like to congratulate our winners, and trust that they enjoyed their exciting opportunity to experience the thrill of watching Manchester United play first-hand,” said Ahmad Aburahima, Vice President, Government Relations, du “Our partnership with Manchester United FC brings our customers even closer to their favourite football team. There will be many more exhilarating occasions for our customers to receive exclusive Manchester United content in the future.”

 

“I’m absolutely flabbergasted as I’ve never won anything before – this is just an amazing experience to be given the opportunity to see Manchester United live. Words fail me,” commented Stephen Reece, who shared his prize with a friend.

 

“Both myself and my son, Callum, are fans of Manchester United, Aberdeen and Alex Ferguson, and we couldn’t think of any better prize than to win a trip to Old Trafford to see Manchester United play,” said Christopher Ridley, who took his son with him to England. 

 

 

 

 

The Peninsula reports that the Al Jazeera Media Network will be soon launching a dedicated sports news channel, which will cover major international tournaments and sports events. The launch of the sports news channel will coincide with the 15th anniversary of Al Jazeera. The channel will feature a variety morning show and a daily talk show that will include in-depth discussions. 

 

 

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Rapid TV News reports that clips from this week’s AFC Champions League semi finals will be available to watch on YouTube. The semi-finals will feature matches between football clubs from Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Korea, and will also highlight the best moments from the quarter final matches and future clashes.

 

"The AFC Champions League YouTube channel is an important part of our commitment to make content from the AFC Champions League available on all platforms to Asian football fans around the world," said James Clarke, senior vice-president, content, World Sport Group, the AFC's exclusive marketing partner.

 

It has been previously reported that the board of European champions FC Barcelona were in talks to vote on scrapping the club's $225m sponsorship deal with Qatar Foundation following a five-and-a-half year shirt sponsorship deal in December, which relegated its UNICEF logo to the back of the shirt. The voting resulted in continuing the deal where 697 members voted in favor of keeping it, while only 76 voted for scrapping it and 36 abstained. 

 

 

Club president Sandro Rosell had argued that the Qatar deal was vital for the club as it looks to balance the books.

 

The deal includes a clause which would allow Barcelona to opt out after three years.