AIA CEO Mark Tucker -- "a hell-bent, die-hard, all-consuming Chelsea fan" -- now longs for EPL side Tottenham to win the Champions League, according to Leo Lewis of the LONDON TIMES. With Tottenham Chair Daniel Levy sitting at his side, Tucker said, "It chokes me to say it." At a visceral level, "the odds were against the Tucker-Levy duo of notoriously uncompromising London negotiators assembling, let alone reaching a deal." But Asia, "with its combination of emerging consumer passions and disposable income, is cheerfully ripping-up the old rules of strategy and probability." The pair "is in Hong Kong to seal a five-year shirt sponsorship deal" estimated at about £80M ($134M). From next season the red logo of AIA, Asia’s largest life insurer, "will be emblazoned on Tottenham shirts for all cup matches and Premier League games." Spurs players, who are wearing shirts bearing the AIA logo for cup matches this season -- including their Europa League game against Dnipro in Ukraine on Thursday -- "will be touting a brand that is not remotely intended for British or European eyes." The secrecy around the value of the deal, and the claim by both that the other got the better end of the bargaining, "hints again at the unlikeliness of the entente." But in order to achieve Levy’s soaring ambitions for Tottenham in domestic and European competitions, "he needs dramatically heftier revenues." Levy said that the north London club needs a new stadium, it needs great players, it needs to win and "it also badly needs Asia." Levy said, "From our point of view, this sponsorship deal wasn’t just about getting the maximum price." Tucker: "Since when?" Levy: "Believe me, it wasn’t. We wanted to be in Asia and we wanted to extend our footprint in Asia." Other major English clubs, especially ManU, Liverpool and Arsenal, have long recognized "the huge commercial value of their growing Asian fan-bases." They have already made rapid headway, "and many have Asia-specific sponsorship deals that richly monetise that." Levy said that the deal with AIA means that "the pursuit of the Asian fan has now officially become a strategic priority." Asked whether, as a consequence of Levy’s notorious negotiating skills, Tucker had transferred any allegiance from Chelsea to Spurs, Tucker said that "he would not, himself, be wearing the new AIA-branded Tottenham shirt." Tucker: "I think there are certain limits. When Tottenham win the Champions League, I will wear one" (LONDON TIMES, 2/17).
