The Bahrain-based airline carrier, Gulf Air, announced a sponsorship deal with the British football team Queens Park Rangers that plays in the second league in the UK. The deal is a little bit unusual as it depends on the performance of the team.
The value of the deal is 7 million Pounds, 1 million per year as long as the team is playing in the second league, this number increases to 3 million pounds as the grand prize for progressing into the English Primer League, kind of a carrot dangling stuff, but it’s a 3 million-pound carrot, I guess it’s really worth it.
Gulf Air joined the club of Middle Eastern airways that sponsor British football teams, Emirates Airlines sponsors the Arsenal, while Etihad Airways is sponsoring Chelsea. It’s pretty amazing to see Arabian brands sponsoring such big team, specially with the case of Emirates and Etihad, but it raises questions about this Europe-based branding race between these brands, is it really a strategic approach? Or just a way to show-off?
