INTERNATIONAL AGENCY TO LEVERAGE OVER 30-YEARS OF EXPERIENCE WITH CONCACAF AND CONMEBOL TOURNAMENTS TO INCREASE CONCACAF PROPERTIES TWO-FOLD

NEW YORK (Tuesday, November 27, 2012) – Following a global RFP process and the approval of its Executive Committee, the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) announced today that it has accepted a bid from Traffic Sports for the commercial partnership rights to the 2013 CONCACAF Gold Cup and the 2013/14 and 2014/15 CONCACAF Champions League tournaments.

The multi-year agreement was reached after due process from the CONCACAF Evaluation Committee comprised of Mr. Pedro Chaluja, Panamanian Football Federation President, Mr. Dan Flynn, General Secretary of the United States Soccer Federation and Mr. Canover Watson, CFO of the Cayman Islands Football Association, who evaluated all bids submitted.

“The strategic alliance with Traffic is the result of a long assessment process that showcases the vast and growing interest in the market for our Confederation properties and tournaments,” said CONCACAF President, Jeffrey Webb. “The number and quality of interested parties are also a true testament to all of our Member Associations’ efforts to elevate the game in our region.”

The agreement includes commercial partnership rights for the 2013 Gold Cup, CONCACAF’s biennial championship for national teams that continues to grow in popularity with fans worldwide, and also for the 2013/14 and 2014/15 editions of the CONCACAF Champions League, the regional club team competition.

Under terms of the deal, Traffic Sports acquires the right to package and market these CONCACAF properties globally with assets that include field of play branding, use of tournament marks, and hospitality, among others.

“We are honored to have been selected by CONCACAF to represent these prestigious competitions,” said Aaron Davidson, President of Traffic Sports USA. “Our company has been investing in soccer in the Americas for 32 years including being the commercial agency for CONCACAF from 1991 – 2003 and holding media and sponsorship rights to the majority of the CONCACAF Member Associations until today.  These are exciting times for football in the CONCACAF region and we look forward to globalizing Gold Cup and Champions League as we have done with Copa America, Copa Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana over the years.”

About CONCACAF
CONCACAF “The Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football” is one of six continental confederations of FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) and serves as the governing body of football in this part of the world. It is composed of 40 national associations, from Canada in the north to Guyana, Surinam and French Guyana in the south.

About Traffic Sports
Traffic Sports is one of the leading sports event and management companies in the world with its primary focus being soccer. Traffic Sports was founded in São Paulo, Brazil 32 years ago and continues to be headquartered there.  Traffic has regional offices in Miami (Traffic Sports USA) and Lisbon, Portugal.  Over the past three decades, Traffic has organized and/or commercialized most of the official international soccer events in the Americas including for example:  Copa America (since 1987), Copa Libertadores, Copa Sudamericana, Gold Cup (1991 – 2003), Champions Cup (1991- 2003), CONMEBOL World Cup Qualifying, CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying and the FIFA Club World Championship 2000.  In 2005 Traffic established its team, academy and player division which currently includes the Fort Lauderdale Strikers, Atlanta Silverbacks and Carolina RailHawks (Members of the North American Soccer League – NASL), Desportivo Brasil (Team and Academy located in the state of São Paulo, Brazil; Affiliated with Manchester United) and Estoril (Team is located in Portugal and currently plays in “Liga Vitalis”).  Traffic Sports is part of the Traffic Group, a sports and entertainment group of companies including Rede Globo affiliates in Brazil, a network of newspapers in Brazil (Bom Dia), a television production facility (TV7), a stadium management company (Traffic Arenas), a digital solutions company (M Traffic) and a music event company (Plan Music).  For more information, visit www.trafficsports.com