- Title: UK: SOCCER - Man Utd sign shirt sponsorship deal with insurance giants AIG.
- Date: 7th April 2006
- Summary: MANCHESTER, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (MAY 27, 2003)(REUTERS) AERIAL OF MANCHESTER UNITED'S OLD TRAFFORD GROUND
- Embargoed: 22nd April 2006 13:00
- Keywords:
- Topics: Sports
- Reuters ID: LVA4IDG0VTP8BMLNVF45ZRBR4GIX
- Story Text: Manchester United, English soccer's most famous club, announced a four-year shirt sponsorship deal with U.S. insurance company AIG Inc worth 56.5 million pounds ($98.98 million).
United, second in the Premier League behind champions Chelsea, are in their first season under the control of American billionaire Malcolm Glazer and his family. United's nine million pounds-a-year shirt deal with Vodafone finishes at the end of this season after the mobile phone giant pulled out two years early to switch its allegiance to the Champions League, Europe's top club competition.
The squad wore the shirts with the new sponsors for the first time at a news conference on Thursday (April 6) in Manchestere.
AIG presisent and CEo Martitn Sullivan said: "We are one of the world's largest companies, certainly the leading insurance and financial services organisation. And for us to be involved in a sponsorship of this nature, we wanted to be the most successful company and withy the brand that is easliy by far the most recognised brand probably in the sports industry worldwide. So, it was a very logical choice for us and we were delighted when the approach was made and we moved very rapidly to close the transaction."
The deal covering United's famous red shirts, the biggest of its kind in English football, will begin next season and was hailed as "a blue chip deal for a blue chip club" by United chief executive David Gill. "We fully undersrtand that a wider partner, a great company like AIG, wqant to partner with us because we are great at our own field, we are the number one football club and we got to produce the goods on the pitch and we understand that you don't do that by not investing in that product -- in an academy an in players," he said Gill said that Bryan Glazer, son of Malcolm, had been involved in setting up the deal. The American company's worldwide reach will help United increase their commercial operations, particularly in Asia.
"AIG has over 250,000 employees and agents in Asia alone - a region where we have an estimated 40 million fans. This deal presents both of us with so many possibilities."
Manager Alex Ferguson was upbeat about the prospect of boosting his squad: "For me, it is always going to be how we can improve the team. I always had to loook at that factor and then go to David or to the Glazer family and say: 'Look this is the player we like and we access how much he is going to cost. So, nothing changes in that aspect you know. But I think it is a fantastic financial progress for the club."
Chelsea, owned by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, signed a five-year, 50 million pound deal with South Korean electronics company Samsung in 2005. Glazer's takeover was fiercely opposed by many fans who were worried about the debt-heavy structure of the takeover.
United posted a 20 percent fall in profit to 46 million pounds in the 11 months to the end of last June after revenue fell to 157.2 million from 169.1 million.
United, European champions in 1999, were knocked out of the Champions League in the group stage this season and struggled in the league before mounting a spectacular recovery which has put them within seven points of Chelsea. United's title of the world's richest soccer club was taken by Real Madrid in February for the first time in the nine-year history of the survey by consultants Deloitte. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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