Sports in Sweden has become increasingly commercialized in order to compete with other associations and are thereby in need of capital. Companies often have the capital that the sport clubs are in need of and can through using the sports as a platform reach out to new or broader target groups. The purpose of this study is to see what the companies main interests are in sponsorship cooperation and whether there are tensions that lead to conflicts of interest.

Our empirical material was collected using semi-structured interviews with six different respondents. We interviewed three different sports clubs and three corporations that are sponsoring these sports clubs. We have also used two descriptive theories, new institutional theory and the actor perspectivethat will help us understand what interest and tensions may possibly arise in a sponsorship collaboration between a company and sports clubs. The result we found showed that the sport clubs youth section was a major motivational factor for companies to sponsor sport clubs. Through them, they can reach a large target group of people and in this way strengthened their brand. The level of commitment regarding the sport clubs societal involvement are crucial for companies when considering sponsorship, it creates legitimacy for the companies and a better platform to strengthen their brand. The greatest interest of the sport clubs is to increase the quality of youth activities.

The conclusions drawn are that the sport clubs must develop their knowledge about how they can communicate with the companies in order to strengthen their position in negotiations. If they can connect their business to the sustainability goals many companies need to achieve, they have come a long way. Those tensions that exist in contractnegotiations, managing of where the capital is being placed and how negative publicity amongst the companies or the sport club are handled to avoid leading to conflict, they should communicate and follow the agreement that has been written. However, the position of power can easily shift during critical times, which in turn affects the actors position in negotiations.