Emirates boss on Arsenal stadium, leaving F1 and NBA Europe
Matt Hardy talks sponsorship and strategy with the executive vice president of corporate communications, marketing and brand at global airline Emirates.
At the end of the Premier League season 11 teams will be forced to change their front-of-shirt sponsor and, for some sides, the brand on their strip is synonymous with a particular era of a club; think Sharp and Manchester United, Carlsberg and Liverpool or West Ham and Dr Martens.
But the two longest standing front-of-shirt sponsorships in the current Premier League diaspora are from the same industry: airlines.
Etihad Airways has enjoyed the showpiece sponsorship patch on Manchester City’s blue shirt since 2009 but UAE rival Emirates will, in August, enter its third decade below the badge of Arsenal.
“Whether it’s AC Milan or Benfica, Real Madrid or Arsenal,” the airline’s executive vice president of corporate communications, marketing and brand, Boutros Boutros, tells Morning Wire, “the problem with sponsorship is you cannot choose a club – you have to be there at the right time.
“It took us years to build it. It’s not overnight. So to keep Arsenal and Real Madrid is a good strategy, and we should continue with it.
“Unfortunately our clubs, this year or every year or every other year, don’t necessarily [always] win. But all our clubs are in the top five all year round.”
Boutros is frank about the sporting landscape, saying on the potential expansion of Arsenal’s home arena, which has been known as Emirates Stadium since its inaugural match in 2006, that “building bigger stadiums, especially for somebody like Arsenal, is really a no-brainer”, while he backs the financial sector to become a major sponsorship player when gambling partners disappear from the front of Premier League shirts.
Emirates not in Formula 1
He says the mantra at the airline is to partner with “Van Gogh paintings”, insisting that there are cheaper alternatives to the teams they sponsor, but that their branded assets are one-offs. “Each club has its own value for us,” he explains, “and value for the club itself. So usually it’s a mutual conversation. I always have this conversation with my P&L and finance people and it’s not easy to convince them.”
Away from football the airline, whose recent results showed a group pre-tax profit of $6.2bn, has deals in rugby, tennis – including all four Grand Slams – and sailing. Cricket, golf, horse racing, cycling and other sports are also on a growing roster. Formula 1 no longer is, however, with the firm having left the sport in 2023; it is something Boutros describes as a “luxury we needed and didn’t need”. He adds: “We wanted to renew, but we didn’t agree on the right price.”
Boutros, too, rejects the notion of sponsoring one of the Hundred teams, insisting the brand’s “awareness” in the sport is high enough and that he doesn’t “think we will be able to take more cricket”, while admitting on NBA Europe that they’re “waiting to see how they are going to define their European project” before looking a look at the market.
The rise in overseas sponsors in UK sport across recent seasons has been notable, but Emirates has been dabbling on these shores since a deal to sponsor Chelsea began in 2001. Since then they’ve grown a portfolio that mirrors their evermore global brand and have become seen as a premium partner.