Formula for a successful relationship

Sporting Lisbon of Portugal is the latest football club to join motor-racing's Superleague Formula (http://www.superleagueformula.com/), in which the club will enter a car to race against the cars of other football clubs including Beijing Guoan, Borussia Dortmund and Flamengo. Why would such a club do this? What are the benefits of fielding a motor sports team when most of the football clubs involved in the series are not even multi-sports organisations (in the same way as e.g. the polideportivos of Spain)? What are some of the problems in fielding a team, in particular won't it simply distract a football team from its core business of playing football? Is it cynical and needless exploitation of football clubs, their histories and their brands? Is it therefore a gimmick? Or is there a serious purpose to the Superleague Formula? Is it a genuine attempt to facilitate e.g. cross promotion, co-marketing and/or strategic collaboration? Does it illustrate that the established business totem of 'collaborate to compete' is as relevant/important in sport as it is in other industrial sectors? At a time when building global reach, identifying sustainable new fan bases' and creating lucrative new revenue streams are all important, isn't the relationship between football and motor sport entirely rational, sensible and justifiable? In which case, what forms of collaboration might we therefore expect to see in the future, when already we are seeing e.g. FC Barcelona engaging in similar such relationships with sports organisations in the US? In which case, a further debate opens up: who/what are appropriate partners; how are they selected; how are relations instigated, developed, organised, managed, dissolved etc?