Today is the long awaited start of the 2014 FIFA World Cup. If you haven’t noticed lately, America is finally catching up to most of the rest of the world in its love for the sport. An incredible amount of soccer related content has been consumed on YouTube in the recent days, so it will be interesting to see the numbers on TV consumption after this year’s event.

World Cup USA 1994: A Look Back at Sports Marketing and Sponsorship

A lot has changed since the USA hosted the World Cup all the way back in 1994, and Premier Sports Management takes an nostalgic look back on the event and also what has changed in the marketing and sponsorship world since those days. (Hint: It’s a lot.)

Seven Most Bizarre Sponsorship Deals in Football (Soccer)

Julian Shea from Metro UK put out an interesting article on Monday about the oddest sponsorship deals in soccer in European Soccer. Manchester United’s new pharmaceutical deal in Korea ranks pretty highly.