Christian Purslow, the managing director of Liverpool, has vowed to invest the proceeds from the club’s record-equalling £80 million sponsorship deal with Standard Chartered, the London-based international bank, in team rebuilding and ruled out the prospect of income from the agreement being used to reduce debt.
As revealed in The Times on Saturday, Standard Chartered will replace Carlsberg as Liverpool’s main sponsor from July 2010, having tied up a deal worth £20 million per season, a figure that matches the most lucrative secured in football, Manchester United’s agreement with Aon, the insurers, which begins next season.
With the level of Liverpool’s debt estimated at £350 million, a figure disputed by Purslow, there had been fears that a significant portion of the revenue from Standard Chartered would be used to reduce the deficit built up by Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr., the co-owners, after their purchase of the club in 2007. But Purslow said that this will not be the case.
“The fans will be pleased and relieved to know that Liverpool’s revenues, profits and income is the club’s,” Purslow said. “It stays in the club, it doesn’t go out of the club, its job is to support our football team and so I can assure you, as we drive forward our turnover, we will invest a sensible element in our wage bill and a sensible level of our profits in our transfers.”
Purslow added that heightened commercial activity must be the bringer of success on the pitch. “I hate words like ‘brand,’ ” he said. “I want us to be the best football team in the world and there is a pretty clear link between being the best team and having the best performance off the field.
“But I stress doing so in a way where we pick our spots and our partners carefully, and we never lose sight of why we are doing it and who we are doing it with. We are doing it for our football club and in a way that is consistent with our history and our soul.”
The lack of a new stadium has long been cited as a cause of Liverpool’s inability to maximise their commercial potential and having promised to have “a spade in the ground within 60 days” of their takeover, Hicks and Gillett have backtracked, arguing that the credit crunch has made plans to build a 60,000-capacity stadium in Stanley Park unfeasible. Purslow, though, remains confident that the dream will become a reality once lending for such projects becomes more affordable.
As revealed in The Times on Saturday, Standard Chartered will replace Carlsberg as Liverpool’s main sponsor from July 2010, having tied up a deal worth £20 million per season, a figure that matches the most lucrative secured in football, Manchester United’s agreement with Aon, the insurers, which begins next season.
With the level of Liverpool’s debt estimated at £350 million, a figure disputed by Purslow, there had been fears that a significant portion of the revenue from Standard Chartered would be used to reduce the deficit built up by Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr., the co-owners, after their purchase of the club in 2007. But Purslow said that this will not be the case.
“The fans will be pleased and relieved to know that Liverpool’s revenues, profits and income is the club’s,” Purslow said. “It stays in the club, it doesn’t go out of the club, its job is to support our football team and so I can assure you, as we drive forward our turnover, we will invest a sensible element in our wage bill and a sensible level of our profits in our transfers.”
Purslow added that heightened commercial activity must be the bringer of success on the pitch. “I hate words like ‘brand,’ ” he said. “I want us to be the best football team in the world and there is a pretty clear link between being the best team and having the best performance off the field.
“But I stress doing so in a way where we pick our spots and our partners carefully, and we never lose sight of why we are doing it and who we are doing it with. We are doing it for our football club and in a way that is consistent with our history and our soul.”
The lack of a new stadium has long been cited as a cause of Liverpool’s inability to maximise their commercial potential and having promised to have “a spade in the ground within 60 days” of their takeover, Hicks and Gillett have backtracked, arguing that the credit crunch has made plans to build a 60,000-capacity stadium in Stanley Park unfeasible. Purslow, though, remains confident that the dream will become a reality once lending for such projects becomes more affordable.
No comments:
Post a Comment