Singapore's World Cup draw

I think most Malaysians would have felt a perverse sense of amusement at watching the "car crash" that was Singapore's recent bid for the FIFA World Cup 2010 broadcast rights.

Then, from a marketing point of view, it started to get really interesting last Friday when finally, with less than a month to go before kick-off, SingTel and StarHub secured the non-exclusively broadcast rights.

Time to sell the sponsorships. There isn't much time for all parties involved to recoup the fees but the World Cup is such a huge draw and marquee event that any brand would want to attach themselves to it.

I met up with a friend who works in Singapore's sports marketing industry over the weekend - he thought Tiger Beer and Singapore Pools would be at least two definite sponsors.

My colleagues in Singapore beat me to the punch on that one with a story today confirming that talks with Singapore Pools were indeed ongoing - but the tone of the story reflected a belief that the Singtel-StarHub World Cup deal had come a little too late.

Perhaps this unique situation leaves the door open only for Tiger Beer to emerge as the main sponsor - APB declined to comment when approached by Marketing mag Singapore.

And since we're on the topic of the World Cup - here's something we can all enjoy.

For the upcoming tournament in South Africa, the World Cup trophy will have its own Louis Vuitton carry-case.

"When you have the most beautiful girl in the world you hope she will wear the most beautiful dress," Jerome Valcke, secretary general of FIFA, explained. "That's exactly what we've done."