After having hosted Globe Soccer Awards which brought superstar Cristiano Ronaldo and his Juventus Torino team mates to spend New Year’s Eve holidays in Dubai (all flown-in on Emirates), this week has now been once again Cristiano Ronaldo’s squad which returned to the Gulf, this time in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia to face rival AC Milan in Italy’s Supercoppa Italiana.
While Juventus has no official airline sponsor, Ronaldo and his mates were flown of a Juventus branded private plane from Turin to Jeddah in partnership with Eden Travel Group which is also the club’s main partner and investor in the upcoming J Hotel within the J Village in Turin. Coincidentally, AC Milan ‘s main sponsor is Emirates Airlines and the team’s calendar also included a symbolic store opening of sponsor Diesel owned by Italian millionaire Renzo Rosso (OTB Group).
The major Italian Cup final has been met with criticism over Saudi Arabia’s treatment of women who, until recently were not allowed to attend a soccer game in a stadium without being accompanied by men. Last year, for the first time, Saudi women were also allowed to drive, a major breakthrough for the kingdom.
The timing of the Italian Cup in Jeddah has been seamlessly synchronised with French leading team PSG (Paris Saint-Germain) Qatar Tour in Doha for the overt campaign to showcase the country’s readiness to host the FIFA World Cup in 2022, a hugely controversial hosting because of weather conditions as well as the current partial political isolation of Qatar by some of its neighbours including Saudi Arabia and labour conditions.
PSG is owned by Qatar’s Sports Authority and sponsored by Qatar Airways. Superstar Neymar Junior and his mates have not only been showcasing training sessions but also hat-on tours with players wearing construction helmets on various construction sites of facilities including stadiums. The team were also spotted taking the new metro in Doha, Qatar.
With hundreds of millions of followers across social media (Ronaldo alone boasts over 800 million followers across all social channels) each team member as well as corporate accounts as well as the internet live streaming as well as television, the three countries have been commanding a huge international audience, every single step of each player at an individual level as well as team being followed and reflected across all channels through all type of communications, mostly in what seemed as an effortless manner.
While the Juventus players were hosted in Dubai by Jumeirah Hotels, for the Italian Cup in Jeddah, The Ritz-Carlton hosted AC Milan and the Four Seasons Hotels to host the PSG squad in Doha.The Ritz-Carlton Jeddah welcomed the AC Milan team and most of the media.
Football has also become a centre point of PR and branding for luxury watch brands led by Hublot and most recently Jacob&Co with Leo Messi and Gaga Milano with Neymar Jr.
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