Liverpool seal £80m shirt sponsorship deal with Standard Chartered
• Four-year deal equals Manchester United deal
• New sponsorship will begin at start of 2010-11 season
Liverpool seal £80m shirt sponsorship
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Liverpool have been sponsored by Carlsberg for 17 years but from next season will have Standard Chartered on their shirts. Photograph: Mike Hewitt/Getty Images
Liverpool are set to announce a new shirt sponsorship deal worth £80m over four years – the most lucrative in football history and equal to that of Manchester United.
The London-based international bank, Standard Chartered, are believed to be behind the deal starting in mid-2010 which should give the manager, Rafael Benítez, some much-needed funds for the transfer market.
Liverpool co-owner George Gillet had earlier stated that a new deal was in the offing and that supporters would be impressed by the new sponsor.
"I think people will be pleased and surprised," Gillett told a Canadian radio station. "It will be one of the great, worldwide corporations. And I think it will be a sponsor people will be pleased and surprised to be associated with."
Gillett, who has just agreed a deal to sell his Montreal Canadiens ice hockey franchise in a deal that could be worth as much as $600m (£360m), said that Liverpool are in excellent financial condition.
The club is in outstanding shape," Gillett said. "Economically, it's never been stronger. We just paid down our debt very substantially. We have less debt per dollar than any club in the league."
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thought only on the 19th this then will become official?
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Liverpool F.C. wanted lead sponsors Carslberg to match the £80 million deal that Aon struck with Manchester United earlier this month, according to the Times. Such a deal would be priced at roughly £20 million a year. Currently, Carslberg pays only £7.2 million a year through 2010.
Pulling off such a coup would be both a financial and political victory for Liverpool’s American owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr. They have laden the club with debt and (briefly) threatened to replace LFC’s beloved manager, Rafael Benitez, making them virtual personae non grata at the club.
Sponsoring Liverpool is no walk in the park — a new brand coming in would find many a minefield to navigate.
Previously, fans have forced Carlsberg to abandon ads and promotions in The Sun newspaper, which Liverpool fans refuse to read. Currently, Liverpool’s fans are demanding an advertiser boycott of Fox Soccer Channel and Sirius/XM’s Steven Cohen, who made remarks criticising fans’ behavior at games where people died.
In a recent meeting between Liverpool fans and Ian Ayre, commercial director at the club, some fans criticised the brewer for advertising at the Leppings Lane end of Sheffield Wednesday F.C.’s ground, where 96 Liverpool fans died in an infamous stadium crush.
In sum, Liverpool’s fans regard the job of the shirt sponsor as supporting the club and its mythos, not selling products.
Also looking for a new deal is Chelsea F.C., whose £10 million a year deal with Samsung expires in June 2010. The Times gave this handy list of stats:
- £80 million The four-year deal Manchester United signed with Aon takes effect from next summer
- £75 million Juventus have a five-year contract with Tamoil, the international oil company
- £68 million Bayern Munich’s four-year deal with T-Home
- £50 million Chelsea signed a five-year contract with Samsung in 2005
- £38 million Real Madrid’s three-year deal with Bwin.com, the Austria-based online gaming company
Steven Cohen, the host of Fox Football Fone-In and Sirius XM’s World Soccer Daily, is battling fans of Liverpool F.C. who are urging advertisers to abandon his shows. Cohen offended the fans by blaming them for the deaths of 96 people at Hillsborough stadium in 1989. Those who arrived without tickets, Cohen has argued, contributed to the disaster.
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so no more carlsberg?
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Chelsea's Samsung deal is extended to end of the 2012/13 season.
Source: http://www.chelseafc.com/page/LatestNews/0,,10268~1723168,00.html
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No more the beer brand by next season...
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Originally posted by Y_Shun:
Chelsea's Samsung deal is extended to end of the 2012/13 season.
Source: http://www.chelseafc.com/page/LatestNews/0,,10268~1723168,00.html
Only extend ah, Never mention increase the sponsorship sum?Chelsea should get at least $15m from Samsung cos they are worth it...
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Hope Carslberg can match the sum of money... 17 years is not easy...