Leicester City's "astonishing performance this season has propelled the club" from 5,000/1 outsider at the start of the campaign to "odds-on favourite to win the Premier League, outdoing those clubs backed by big money," according to Shona Ghosh of MARKETING MAGAZINE. According to Deloitte’s Money League, Leicester City "is the 24th-richest football club globally, behind Aston Villa and ahead of Sunderland," with reported revenue of £137.2M in '14-15. As a comparison, top club Real Madrid "raked in" £577M over the same period. This figure could "improve dramatically" after Leicester City's performance this season, with the club in a "better position to pursue more lucrative sponsorship deals, at least in the short term." However, "there is a cloud." The club is "under investigation over concerns from rivals that it has broken the league’s financial fair play regulations." Nonetheless, M&C Saatchi Sport and Entertainment CEO Steve Martin said that Leicester City's deal with Trestellar is not "necessarily suspicious in itself." Martin said, "Lots of clubs use selling agents to sell tickets, but also selling agencies for sponsorship rights. [Trestellar] is the agency which has been [selling] the rights, and one of those is the shirt sponsorship. It’s not abnormal." He added that what is unusual, is "the three-fold increase in commercial income." Martin: "[Leicester City] might argue that the brand has evolved so much -- they’re now in the Premier League -- that [the value of] sponsorship [has increased] from £5 million ($7.1M) to £16 million ($22.7M). That’s what their argument will be." He said that there will still be questions for Leicester City and "how it reached such a high sponsorship valuation." He said, "They'll be dragged through the mud a bit" (MARKETING MAGAZINE, 4/13).
