ABC/RDR

[RP]

'Anti Bribery & Corruption' and the 'Retail Distribution Review'

 

I think that between these two pieces of regulation/legislation, football (and many other sports) will potentially become far poorer. If financial services firms cannot (legally) entertain clients at sporting events, their willingness to spend vast sums of money to sponsor them will surely diminish.

 

It might allow the common fan access to a few more tickets maybe .. but overall it will undoubtedly have a negative impact of the money that currently flows into the game. It'll be interesting to see just how much of an impact, whether the shortfall will be made up elsewhere and whether the impact will really be negative from a (matchgoing) fans perspective.

Edited January 18, 2014 by RP

[Gerry]

I'm all for ABC anyway, as our company could win a bunch of new clients due to the FCA cracking down.

Edited January 18, 2014 by RP

[RP]

If financial service companies can't take clients to the game as freely/easily as before, I wonder what impact that'll have on sponsorship and executive boxes??

Edited January 18, 2014 by RP

[RP]

Thread edited/pruned after I f*cked it up with a misleading (i.e. wrong) thread title

[Rimbeux]

There was a lot of worry around this about two years back, but advice since has been nothing to fuss about, just don't explicitly link any transaction to any treat. I'm not sure I trust that advice, and can see how a spurned party in a negotiation, or unhappy with a deal shareholder can make a big fuss of who took who to what.

[RP]

I've heard this week of three banks who are currently seriously reviewing their whole relationship with sport and corporate entertainment. The new regulations leave some horrible grey areas which the banks don't know how to interpret safely ... so I guess they'll reduce their financial investment in football.

[Rimbeux]

That's it, nobody wants to be hammered, safety first. As an aside though, I've always found most of the corporate season tickets etc get used internally most of the time and it's only the huge events that people readily take up invites for.

[RP]

Yeah I'd agree with that.

 

Most complimentary tickets aren't put to any commercial use at all - only for the big games, as you say.