|
The gap between the rich and poor of English football continues to widen as the top clubs attract the largest sponsorship contracts. Shirt sponsorship deals across the Premiership are worth more than £69m this season, an average of £3.45m per club. But the purchasing power is concentrated in the top five deals, with Manchester United, Chelsea, Spurs, Liverpool and Newcastle United accounting for £46m worth of sponsorship. Manchester United's deal with insurance company AIG is the most lucrative in Europe, worth an estimated €20.8m, €6.3m more than Chelsea, their nearest English rivals, who signed up with Samsung Mobile. Liverpool's arrangement with Carlsberg has been stable but not as lucrative as the deals done recently by United and Chelsea. At €11m this season, it lags €500,000 behind Tottenham's deal with Mansion, the betting company. Newcastle's €7.1m deal with Northern Rock may be endangered by uncertainity about the company's future.
|
