SHIRT DEALS HIT JACKPOT IN GAMBLING TAKEOVER
The commercial significance of the Far east to Premier League football has been revealed on the list of shirt sponsors for the 2017-18 season, with only Liverpool, Southampton, Stoke City and Watford now parading the names of British-based companies.
Two gambling outfits and a company which builds eco-towns are among the Chinese businesses on shirts for the new season, for which Premier League clubs have earned a record £281million. The value of shirt sponsorships has trebled in seven years and now earns Premier League sides £160m more than their Bundesliga counterparts.
The 20- club list reveals the continued significance of gambling firms in the game, just a month after the FA terminated a £4m-a-year contract with Ladbrokes following a string of high- profile betting controversies in the sport.
Nine clubs remain tied to gambling and the industry spends £47.3m on shirt deals, only marginally less than last season.
Clubs will also command additional sponsorship worth an expected £20m by selling separate sponsored sleeve patches for 2017-18 — shirt space freed up by Barclays no longer being the Premier League sponsor.
Manchester City have by far the biggest sleeve-patch deal — £10m with South Korean firm Nexen. Ten clubs are expected to tie up a collective sleeve- patch deal being negotiated by intermediary Sporting Group International.
The value of shirt patches varies, with Leicester and Watford earning £500,000 and hudderfield Town £250,000 from their deals. Larger clubs, including Manchester United, Chelsea and Tottenham, include sleeve space in their main shirt deals. United’s club-record £47m-ayear Chevrolet deal remains the biggest deal in the Premier League, while Chelsea’s arrangement with tyre firm Yokohama is second at an annual £40m.
Manchester City’s deal with etihad has jumped to £35m per year because of a ‘step increase’ in their own contract, while Tottenham’s renegotiated deal with AIA has also grown to £35m a year.
Liverpool’s deal with Standard Chartered is up to £30m a year but the club are sixth on the list. Most of the 20 clubs have seen increased deals for the new season, with West ham and everton registering the biggest leaps among the ‘middling clubs’ via new contracts with gambling firms.
The 16 overseas shirt sponsors are based in countries as diverse as the USA, China, Japan, Thailand, the United Arab emirates, Malta, Kenya and the Philippines.
Meanwhile, the £200m takeover of Southampton by Chinese company Lander holdings is thought to be on track, despite reports from the Far east that current owner Katharina Liebherr might not want to sell.
Talks have concluded and it is now a question of the Chinese firm completing the financial transaction to buy a stake of around 80 per cent in the club from Liebherr.