TLA Worldwide secures major friendly football tournament

18th Jun 2014 11:57

Athlete agent and sports marketing group TLA Worldwide has struck a deal to bring a well-respected friendly football tournament to the Asia Pacific region for the next four years, in partnership with Australia's channel Nine network.TLA has agreed with Relevent Sports, a subdivision of US billionaire Stephen M. Ross's RSE Ventures, to bring the elite International Champions Cup (ICC) to Asia Pacific from 2015-2018, the first time the friendly football tournament for major European football clubs will be played outside the US.Major European teams such as Real Madrid and Manchester United use the tournament as part of their pre-season warm-up tours. AIM-listed TLA said the deal, which marked a "major expansion" on its normal activities, would not benefit numbers in the current financial year, but management expected the partnership with Nine and the agreement with Relevent to have "a materially positive impact on our results from next year".TLA and Nine Live, a wholly owned division of Nine Entertainment Co, have agreed to jointly organise, promote and deliver the ICC to the region from 2015-2018.2015's participating teams and host country for the tournament will be announced in due course, but the current year's teams are Manchester United, Real Madrid, Inter, Roma, Liverpool, Manchester City, Olympiacos and AC Milan.Chairman Bart Campbell said: "With this agreement TLA has made a significant move to diversify its activities into the world's most popular sport. TLA will play a central role in bringing some of the world's most widely followed clubs and iconic brands to one of the most dynamic regions of Asia."TLA shares were up 1.94% to 39.50p by 12:40 on Wednesday. OH