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It appears that you don’t have to be a Premiership club to secure a good shirt sponsorship deal. Indeed, Coventry City have secured a deal that is better than that received in the last year or so by some lower level Premiership clubs.
Having gone on a £200m spending spree this summer, news that Real’s shirt sponsorship deal with Austrian online betting group Bwin has been extended by three years (until 2013) will come as some relief to the club’s accountants and creditors. At least one line of income has been secured. The deal could be worth up to 20m euros ($29.1m; £18.3m) a year from the renegotiated agreement.
Manchester United have once again demonstrated their financial pulling power by securing the biggest shirt deal in football history. They have secured a four year contract worth £80m with Aon Corporation, the American financial giant, which will replace AIG as the club’s shirt sponsors from the start of the 2010-11 season. The deal comfortably eclipses the £68m four year agreement that Bayern Munich have with T-home, the telecommunications firm, and dwarfs United’s existing £56.5m contract with AIG.
Premiership clubs are facing a buyer’s market for shirt sponsorships. 188Bet, an Asia-focused online gambling company unknown in the UK has pulled off a double sponsorship deal. It will be the shirt sponsor for Bolton Wanderers and Wigan Athletic for the next two seasons. It is believed that 188Bet is paying Bolton about £70,000 a year, while Wigan is getting about £60,000. Both clubs may get bonuses based on team performance. A year ago both clubs could have expected deals in the region of £1m a year.
As expected, the troubled US insurance group AIG which has been bailed out by the US Government will not be renewing its shirt sponsorship deal with Manchester United that expires in May 2010. AIG agreed to pay £14 million a year for four years for the shirt sponsorship deal and also has a longer £5m a year deal to run MU Finance. AIG signed a six-and-a-half year deal at the beginning of 2008 to offer insurance, credit cards and mortgages using the MU Finance brand. It is not clear whether the MU Finance deal will continue.
Not one side from the former East Germany (DDR) has won a Bundesliga title in the nineteen years since the fall of the Berlin Wall. It looks like the wait could go on for quite a while, as Energie Cottbus are the old East’s sole representative in the top flight and even their position is under threat – they are currently bottom of the division. After reunification, the only DDR sides in a financial condition to join the top flight were Dinamo Dresden and Hansa Rostock.
The turmoil at Manchester United’s sponsors, AIG, has focused attention on football shirt sponsors. Football shirt sponsorship has enjoyed steady growth in recent years. According to sports marketing consultant Sports Markt, total revenues last year were £287.8m in the six large European leagues, up 10.6 per cent on the previous year and doubling their value in eight years. But, as with most aspects of life in the Premier League, there is a gulf between the top clubs and everyone else, and the economic downturn is leaving other clubs struggling to find a sponsor.