IAAF Change Sponsorship rules

ecoli

The IAAF over the last week have changed their rules regarding sponsorship on athletes kit.

From Jan 1 2012 athletes will now be able to have 2 sponsors on their kit instead of the previous rule which stated only one shoe company's logo was allowed and size had to be relatively small

This rule could have major implicatioins for professional runners all over the world for a few reasons

1) 2 logos = 2 sponsors = more money for athletes who are not in the prize winning category. This allows the likes of many Irish runners to benefit and running will be slightly more lucrative meaning sub elites will have a better chance of financially supporting themselves

2) 2nd logo is not restricted to shoe companies. This opens sponsorship up to comanies outside of sport meaning that there will be more opportunities for athletes to get sponsorships. Again this has major implications on the likes of the sub elite athletes who struggle to get by training full time

All in all I think this is a very postive move and one that many of the Irish athletes could possibly benefit from who are not sponsored or have very limited funding. I cant see it having to much impact on many of the Nike/Adidas elite runners as I think that most of their contracts cover this by means of an exclusivity clause within their contract but hopefully this move is a proactive move to push athletics as more viable career move for many of our runners who fall away for financial reasons

robinph

Didn't realise it was actually restricted to shoe manufacturers, although it is kind of obvious when all you ever see on anyones gear is pretty much the same sized logos as we get from the same companies on the gear we have to pay for.

Definitely a good thing for athletics and athletes.