Amongst all the points well raised by Tristan I would like to point out the cruciality of the "Tax break" element.

Find precises informations about Tax Law in Portugal before launching your "sponsor haunting campaign" and underline this aspect when you communicate with your potential sponsors. From our experience, it is decisive.

Few tips:

- Don't communicate by emails which are too easy to repply with a standard refusal answer. Get direct contact by phone or better in person;

- Have a support, something to give to your potential sponsor, presenting: the game, its spread worlwide, its developpement and grown possibilities in Portugal, and it is very important an additionnal clear list mentionning the different economical level of contribution that you expect from them as it will serve has a reference for further negociations. (You may find for example our support document in french and dutch prepared for Bari here : http://www.buwh.be/images/doc/dossie..._2007_bari.pdf and the one for Sheffield there http://www.buwh.be/Document/WC_2006_...compressed.pdf );

- spread the haunt (by motivating your players to contribute actively to it) but centralise the communication;

- Insist on the institutional aspect (IOC, CMAS organisation, etc...) even if it is only a label, sponsors are always extremely attentive to this recognition, it comforts them providing them the sentiment that they are not giving their to money to a baunch of amateurs ;

- Be creative, reactive and imaginative in order to find how your collaboration with a sponsor could be optimised into a partnership;

- And the most important : Be really PROACTIVE,POSITIVE and as PROFESSIONAL as possible. Even if it seems difficult to understand believe strongly that what you offer has a real VALUE (even a begining team like Portugal). Try to push every door.

It is not because some old player tells you that something is not possible that it is not.
It just proves that he has simply never seriously tried.

Yours,

Romain