Manchester United signs five year content deal with Bharti Airtel

MANCHESTER, UK: Bharti Airtel, Asia's leading integrated telecom services provider, announced a five-year partnership with Manchester United Football Club. The partnership is first of its kind for both Manchester United and Airtel.L to R: Carlos Tevez, Darren Fletcher, Shireesh Joshi, Director Marketing, Bharti Airtel, Sir Alex Ferguson, Sanjay Kapoor, Deputy CEO, Bharti Airtel and Wayne Rooney at the signing of a five year exclusive agreement between Bharti Airtel and Manchester United at Old Trafford, Manchester (UK).

With this, Airtel customers across India, Sri Lanka and the Seychelles will get exclusive access to rich football content of Manchester United (MU) on Airtel mobile phones.

In addition, Airtel users will also get an opportunity to participate in the Manchester United Soccer Schools program currently operated by Manchester United Merchandising Limited. Airtel customers will also get an opportunity to watch football matches at Old Trafford and travel to Europe to watch Manchester United play the UEFAChampions League.

The announcement was made by Sanjay Kapoor, Deputy CEO, Bharti Airtel in the presence of Manchester United Club CEO David Gill, Sir Alex Ferguson and Manchester United players Wayne Rooney, Carlos Tevez and Darren Fletcher at Old Trafford, Manchester City, UK.

“We are very excited to partner with Manchester United, a powerful global brand with huge following across the world and in India.” said Sanjay Kapoor, Deputy CEO, Bharti Airtel. He added “Football is definitely seeing a growing interest amongst the young population in India. Therefore, we are making a pioneering effort to bring to them rich football content on their mobiles, a fantastic opportunity to be part of the world’s leading football club through participation in soccer schools, and also an opportunity to watch football matches across Europe.”

Manchester United Club CEO David Gill said: “Manchester United is delighted to announce the partnership with Bharti Airtel, India’s largest telecommunications company and one of Asia’s emerging global brands. This partnership demonstrates the enduring strength of the Club internationally. We are very proud to have Bharti Airtel as the first Indian company to partner with Manchester United Club. This major partnership will bring the action and the passion of Manchester United directly to the millions of fans of Manchester United across India and other Asian countries."

Key highlights of the agreement
* Airtel will be able to bring for its customer rich exclusive content such as video clips of Premiership matches and UEFA Champion’s League Highlights, Classic Goals and Games of Manchester United, Match Feeds & reports and editorial features. Also, downloads of Mobile Games, Ringtones, animations, and Wallpapers of popular Manchester United first team players such as Ronaldo, Rooney, Ferdinand.
* Airtel customers will be able to access the internationally popular Manchester United mobile portal where rich mobile products and content will be exclusively available for the Airtel customers.
* Airtel customers can also watch Manchester United Football matches at the Old Trafford Ground in the Premier League, FA Cup, Football League Cup, UEFA Champions League. A few lucky Airtel customers will also get an opportunity to travel with the Manchester United first team during their away UEFA Champions League matches.
* Football enthusiasts among Airtel customers will get an opportunity to train at one of the Manchester United Soccer Schools (MUSS). MUSS are currently run in Hong Kong, Seattle, Toronto and Dubai as well as Manchester, and it enables people around the world to participate in soccer activities. These programmes take their lead from the coaching at the Manchester United Academy and First Team training sessions.