THE GLOBALIZATION OF SOCCER: AN ANALYSIS OF THE BUSINESS STRATEGIES AT THE END OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY.

Abstract

This paper aims at analyzing the strategies and effects of the globalization of the Brazilian economy on sports, especially soccer, at the end of the Twentieth Century, taking into consideration the worldwide relevance of the aforementioned process. There is a focus on soccer due to the amount of accounted businesses and the massive investment by corporate sponsorships and partnerships, which were surveyed in then published books and newspapers. The strategies for sponsorship and partnership deals include, not only the financial transfer in exchange for the trademark publicity, but also television broadcasting rights and even shares in the stock market in richer countries, such as Britain. In Brazil, a peripheral country with low level of investment in sports, soccer went through remarkable moments in the Nineties, when the soccer-business relationship took up rising importance. This was due to soccer being a great product for companies, the chance to solve the clubs' emerging crisis, which was caused by local administrations, but also by tensions involving such administrators and entrepreneurs, struggling for the (economic) power of soccer. As a result, this study suggests soccer clubs need a professional management so that the relationships with companies may be better and more frequent.