Abstract
The beginning of the 1980s had showed an entry to a new developmental step in the sports market as a real economic market. This evolution was due to the multiplication of communication acts from companies into the sport market. Now, companies can use a lot of tools to communicate and of course develop their notoriety and their brand image. We can notice that for more than 10 years companies have been using sport sponsoring, particularly the French ones. Indeed, sponsoring became a full fledged way to communicate and we can define this method as a part of the marketing-mix. The changes suffered by the sports world and sponsorships have helped to illuminate the debate on sports marketing and this has helped to reorient the thinking and investment in this field. Sponsorship has become today, an elementary tool for business while preserving those values through the sports unpredictability of results. Football is the most popular sport in France and around the world and it also receives the most media coverage, therefore, it is a communication vehicle of optimal image for any company wishing to communicate, including through an investment by differentiating in the complex world of the sport. In addition, the popular enthusiasm that The World Cup 98 raised in France has not waned and continues to make football, a communication channel, prosperous. Besides the traditional tools available to companies, sports sponsorship in football, especially in professional football, is it possible to say that it now appears as a strategic opportunity for developing awareness and marketing of brand image?
