Promotional sportswear is big business in the corporate gift industry, having your school kids football team all kitted out with their own branded kits, will make them feel much more professional.

Branded sports kits don’t come too much bigger then Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, who have agreed a shirt sponsorship deal, restricted to Premier League games, with software company Autonomy Corporation. The two-year deal, which begins from the start of the 2010/2011 season, will see the Autonomy brand feature on the Tottenham Hotspur shirt in Barclays Premier League matches.

The football club said that it was in discussions with several brands regarding the shirt sponsorship opportunity for Cup competitions which will incorporate the FA Cup, League Cup and European Competitions.

Of course its not just branded football shirts that are available. Get your very own embroidered polo shirts for your pool team, or if you’re a bit posher, have your own polo shirts for your polo team!

Gift Selection can offer promotional clothing from all the best manufacturers of branded garments; contact their friendly team today for more information.

If you’re a tennis fan, you’ll know doubt have enjoyed the spectacle of Roger Federer avoiding one of the biggest upsets in tennis history as he came from two sets down to beat Alejandro Falla at Wimbledon.

The defending champion came through 5-7 4-6 6-4 7-6 (7-1) 6-0 in an eye-brow raising opening match on Centre Court. Falla, the world number 60, served for the match at 5-4 in the fourth set, but top seed Federer found the strength from somewhere. “I definitely got very lucky out there,” a relieved Federer told BBC Sport after winning in three hours and 18 minutes to book a second-round meeting with Serbia’s Ilija Bozoljac.

Having broken Pete Sampras’s Grand Slam record at the All England Club last year, Federer is now looking to equal the American’s haul of seven Wimbledon titles, but for much of the game the Swiss champion looked as though he’d be watching the rest of the tournament on Murray Mount. “For some reason, I wasn’t able to read his serve. That really rattled me. I had to look for that for a long time. Thank God I found it eventually,” said Federer.

If you’re looking forward to watching Andy Murray today, chances are you’d love some tennis based promotional products. Did you know Gift Selection can supply promotional tennis balls? I don’t even play tennis, but I still want some tennis balls with my name on!

Branded tennis balls are just one example of unusual sport based promotional products that Gift Selection can offer; contact their friendly team if you’re looking for something specific.

One of the most prized assets for sports teams is the name of their home ground, and a massive benefit for a sponsor to have its brand inserted in the name of a stadium hosting FIFA World Cup matches. Despite forking out an arm and a leg, not all commercial partners will get access to this massive global audience however.

When the Argentina v Nigeria game kicked off in Johannesburg’s Coca-Cola Park last Saturday, you won’t have heard the TV and radio commentators referring to the soft-drinks company as the stadium’s sponsor, and newspapers refrained from mentioning it in their match reports.

Instead, media outlets used the ground’s original name, Ellis Park, which it was given in 1928 by JD Ellis, who owned the land on which it sits. In 2008, Coca-Cola paid an estimated £30m for the stadium branding, so why will it lose this just when the eyes of the world are turned toward it?

Coca-Cola is one of FIFA’s six official partners, each of which pays an estimated £86.9m for the privilege. Not exactly peanuts. In return, the company gets pouring rights at match stadiums as well as pitch-side advertising hoardings. Crucially, the premium paid by sponsors of football’s world governing body also secures them exclusive exposure, which is what prevents the stadiums from promoting their own tie-ups during the World Cup. Ironically, this ban extends to Coca-Cola’s naming of Ellis Park, despite the company’s relationship with FIFA.

Some branding works better then others, the United Arab Emirates branding of Highbury has been received well; but the Foster’s Oval anyone?

                          I can’t believe they have nothing better to do, but FIFA is investigating whether their sponsorship rights have been breached by a brand of English ale.

Striker, made by Oxfordshire brewer Hook Norton, has been launched to coincide with the forthcoming football tournament. Promotional material claims it is ‘Brewed to celebrate the FIFA World Cup 2010. Supporting England’.

A spokesman for FIFA said that citing the World Cup would ‘clearly go against our regulations’. I think it’s pretty obvious that the beer has no links with FIFA, but there still not happy. I don’t know why Hook Norton even bothered mentioning the FIFA name, as it seems unnecessary to me.

To add to the poor breweries problems, Carlsberg aren’t happy either as they are the official beer of the England team and The Football Association, however they will not be taking action.

If you do have any questions about branding, contact the branding experts at Gift Selection.

The world and his wife are aligning themselves with the World Cup, with some clever branding from a wide variety of businesses. The latest company to jump on the brandwagon is Nestle’s Kit Kat, who are to sponsor all the Sky World Cup coverage as part of the UK’s largest dedicated mobile campaign to date.

I don’t think Kit Kats play a major role in the player’s diets, but this hasn’t stopped the  six-figure deal, brokered by Mindshare, will see Kit Kat sponsor Sky’s World Cup coverage across iPhone, iPod Touch, Smart-phones and all other WAP-enabled mobile devices.

Last week, it was revealed that Mars and The Football Association (FA) are considering legal action against Nestlé, which they believe has breached sponsorship rules in its latest ad for its Kit Kat brand. Unlike Nestle, Mars, landed a five-year partnership with The FA in October and is an official supplier to the England team.

A Nestlé spokesperson said: “During the World Cup, websites tend to become very noisy with a wide range of advertisers vying for consumer attention. This led us to divert our attention to mobile as an interesting new platform to engage audiences. And as the pre-eminent provider of sports and news content on mobile devices, Sky was a natural destination for us.”

If you’re looking to promote your business, with some patriotic promotional products to be used specifically during the World Cup, contact the experts over at Gift Selection. Gift Selection is a quality promotional product distributor who have a full range of corporate gifts, made specifically available for the World Cup 2010.

London 2012’s new mascots have been unveiled, and I’m wondering if I’m the only person who actually thought they were a joke. I mean, ‘Wenlock’ and ‘Mandeville,’ really?

This was the product of eighteen months of research and forty focus groups. From the top of my head I think a torch called ‘Flamey’ would have been a better idea. At least it would have been recognizable, had a catchy name and cost absolutely nothing to think of.

To be fair their unusual names do have meaning behind them as Wenlock in Shropshire is considered by many the birthplace of the modern Olympics. Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the IOC, visited the town in 1890 and took inspiration from the annual Games organised by Dr William Penny Brookes, a local doctor, to “promote the moral, physical and intellectual improvement of the inhabitants”.

Stoke Mandeville’s famous spinal injuries unit meanwhile was where the Paralympics movement began, and the naming of one mascot after the hospital is an explicit attempt to raise the profile of the Paralympics Games.

These mascots are all about making money however, with big businesses to be had from selling promotional merchandise. London 2012 say the key to meeting their commercial target has been developing a storyline that will lend Wenlock and Mandeville credibility in a pre-teen marketplace where they will be up against Dr Who and other established brands.

Lord Coe and the committee recruited former Children’s’ Laureate Michael Morpurgo, who came up with the concept of the mascots being fashioned from two drops of molten steel spilt in the making of the last steel girder used in the Olympic Stadium. Since when did children need a story line to be persuaded by something anyway? The Teletubies weren’t a success because of the interesting anthropological questions raised by their unusual gene pool. They were a success because they were fun and that’s it. 

Stephen Bayley, founder of the Design Museum, believes his daughter summed the mascots up perfectly when she referred to them as ‘rubbish earrings’. He said: ‘The logo was hideous enough but now we have these ridiculous, infantile mascots. Who is to blame for this I ask you? ‘Given the economic predicament that Britain is in at the minute, what right do they have to throw their money at such hideous creatures? They are atrocious.’

To be fair there has never been a decent Olympic games mascot. If you don’t agree, can you recall a single one? Waldi the multi-coloured Daschund anyone? I didn’t think so…

The sun has been shining for the last few days, with many Brits daring to dream of BBQs and dig out their khaki shorts once again. With spring seemingly ‘leap-frogged’ by Summer, what could be more British then watching cricket?

I suppose by watching British cricket? OK, you’ve got a point there, but for now the popular IPL is capturing the imaginations of cricket fans worldwide. Not all is well though, as India’s cricket board has suspended IPL chief Lalit Modi over corruption allegations, in what as described as “the worst crisis to hit the Indian game this century.”

At an emergency meeting on Monday the Indian cricket board, the BCCI, named an interim chairman and said it was searching for “missing” IPL documents. Mr Modi, who is being investigated by tax officials, denies all allegations of wrongdoing.

If watching the cricket has inspired you (to play cricket I mean, not to embark on a career in corruption), then supplying corporate sports and cricket clothing in particular is no problem for Gift Selection.

Quality brands such as Slazenger, are available from Gift Selection. It is not just promotional clothing that they can supply, if you require the right volume, branded bags, branded bottles – any promotional item you can think of is possible through them. If you’re holding a corporate sporting event, less obvious promotional items can work well too such as branded lip balms.

Corporate golf days haven’t exactly been booming in the last eighteen months with the economy being what it is, however a new line of eco friendly promotional golf items are waiting and ready, for when you get chance to dust off your irons.

Did you know that golf is more of charitable sport then you may first realise. In the U.S alone, golf generates $3.5 billion for charitable causes each year, with all professional golf tournaments in the U.S managed by charity based organisations.

A smart eco friendly promotional golf item is this little golf tee set (pictured). These 20 tees are made from corn plastic and are placed inside an organic cotton drawstring pouch. This promotional golf item carries a great branding area without looking tacky. Gift Selection is one of the few UK distributors who can supply, unusual eco friendly, promotional golf items like this, but that of course is not all they can offer.

Gift Selection can of course supply all the classic promotional golf items, from Callaway branded golf balls, to awards and trophies. If you’re looking for something more unusual items, then ask their friendly team of experts who will be happy to advise.

Did you see the British number 1; miss out on his first Grand Slam title yesterday? Despite being Fedorized, Andy Murray said his desire to win a Grand Slam title remained intact, despite a solid defeat at the Australian Open.

The Briton lost 6-3 6-4 7-6 (13-11) to Roger Federer in Sunday’s final. “I’m hungry to win one,” said the 22-year-old Scot. “I haven’t since I was 16, 17 years old when I started playing the junior Grand Slams.”I worked really, really hard to try to do it and give myself the opportunity. So far it’s not been good enough but I’m sure one day it will be.”

Andy Murray’s defeat means that the 74-year-wait for a British male Grand Slam singles champion continues, a British man hasn’t won a major tournament since Fred Perry lifted the US Open trophy back in 1936.

Despite all the grey skies, if all this Tennis has got you in the mood for a game, I’m sure you would appreciate some quality Tennis related promotional products from The Promostore. The Promostore can supply a great range of branded Tennis items including; branded tennis balls, branded tennis bags and Men’s and Ladies’ cool fit sport tops.

If you are looking for any promotional sports item in particular, contact the friendly team over at The Promostore, who will be able to source exact what you’re looking for.

The sports merchandise sector is one of the biggest parts of the promotional products industry, as we all know how fanatical supporters can be of their particular team or sport. With the World Cup in South Africa not too far away, Gift Selection is preparing to offer a wide range of promotional products for what is the sporting highlight of the year.

They have a great range of low cost promotional sports items that are great giveaways for football fans watching the games in bars. There range of corporate gifts for the world cup, is a great opportunity for practically any organisation to get patriotic, and raise their profile this summer.

Some of the branded promotional items on offer are a: foldable pocket flat, supporters rattle, horns & noise makers, Supports hats & caps, car sun protectors, hand clappers, football scarves and even promotional footballs.

They can even supply Fair Trade footballs, which will ensure a great quality product along with guaranteed socially responsible conditions.  It is not true that these footballs have to be much more expensive than no-certified products due to the comprehensive measures taken. Remember that all of their branded sports items can be fully personalised, my particular favourite are the painted horns! Bespoke horns and promotional noisemakers will give your corporate image involved in the festivity, and will certainly gain attention.