 |
(l to r) Patrice Evra, Bryan Glazer,
Sir Alex Ferguson And Gary Neville |
U.S.-based insurance company AIG “has agreed to pay a British record” US$98.9M over four years to replace Vodafone as Manchester United’s new jersey sponsor, according to Oliver Kay of the LONDON TIMES. Gibraltar-based online gambling company Mansion “claims it was willing to pay” US$113.8M over the same period, but ManU, “uncomfortable with the idea of forging such strong links with a gambling company, said that the biggest offer was not necessarily the best.” ManU CEO David Gill: “We passed up the opportunity to do the world’s biggest shirt deal to do the right deal.” Kay notes ManU’s deal with AIG “dwarfs” the team’s previous US$15.75M annual deal with Vodafone, as well as Chelsea’s US$18.1M shirt sponsorship with Samsung. Italian team Juventus has the richest shirt deal in European soccer, a ten-year, US$293.2M deal with Libyan oil company Tamoil (
LONDON TIMES, 4/7).
UNITED THEY STAND: In London, David Bond writes the AIG deal “dispels the doubts over United’s commercial appeal” since Malcolm Glazer’s $1.38B takeover of the team last May. ManU Commercial Dir Andy Anson said that he “spoke to 100 companies during the search” for Vodafone’s replacement. Anson: “AIG are hardly known in Britain but they’re one of the five biggest companies in the world. That will help our global reach.” Bond notes Vodafone’s early termination of the contract “placed the club under intense pressure to find a new backer before an April deadline, set by [uniform supplier] Nike, to produce new shirts.” Glazer’s son, Bryan, was present for the AIG announcement, but “watched from the front row of the press conference, flanked by two security guards, rather than take a seat at the top table.” Gill “paid tribute to Glazer’s role in securing the deal and also praised Anson and [Buccaneers Dir of Marketing & Business Development] Jeff Ajluni” (London TELEGRAPH, 4/7).
PUT IT ON RED: BLOOMBERG NEWS’ Ryan Mills reports Premiere League club Aston Villa has signed a two-year jersey sponsorship deal with online gambling company 32Red “that may be worth a ‘seven-figure sum’ annually.” The firm becomes the second online gambling company to sponsor a Premiership club, joining 888.com’s deal with Middlesbrough (BLOOMBERG NEWS, 4/7). The TELEGRAPH’s Bond wrote Thursday that while ManU lawyers “explored all the possible restrictions of a deal with Mansion, there were worries about the implications of children wearing United shirts promoting gambling” (London TELEGRAPH, 4/6).
