Liverpool F.C. wanted lead
sponsors Carslberg to match the £80 million deal
that Aon struck with Manchester
United earlier this month, according to the Times.
Such a deal would be priced at roughly £20 million a year.
Currently, Carslberg pays only £7.2 million a year through
2010.
Pulling off such a coup would be both a financial and political
victory for Liverpool’s American owners, Tom Hicks
and George Gillett Jr. They have laden the club
with debt and (briefly) threatened to replace LFC’s beloved
manager, Rafael Benitez, making them virtual
personae non grata at the club.
Sponsoring Liverpool is no walk in the park — a new brand coming
in would find many a minefield to navigate.
Previously, fans have forced
Carlsberg to abandon ads and promotions in The Sun newspaper, which
Liverpool fans refuse to read. Currently,
Liverpool’s fans are demanding an
advertiser boycott of Fox Soccer Channel and
Sirius/XM’s Steven
Cohen, who made
remarks criticising fans’ behavior at games where people
died.
In a recent meeting between Liverpool fans and Ian
Ayre, commercial director at the club, some fans criticised the brewer for
advertising at the Leppings Lane end
of Sheffield Wednesday F.C.’s ground, where 96 Liverpool fans died in an infamous
stadium crush.
In sum, Liverpool’s fans regard the job of the shirt sponsor as
supporting the club and its mythos, not selling products.
Also looking for a new deal is Chelsea F.C.,
whose £10 million a year deal with Samsung expires
in June 2010. The Times gave this handy list of stats:
Steven Cohen, the host of Fox Football Fone-In
and Sirius XM’s World Soccer Daily, is battling fans of Liverpool
F.C. who are urging advertisers to abandon his shows.
Cohen offended the fans by blaming them for the deaths of 96 people
at Hillsborough stadium in 1989. Those who arrived without tickets,
Cohen has argued, contributed to the disaster.