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Premier League Finances

News and commentary related to the financial aspect of the English Premier League.

Manchester United have signed two new lucrative commercial deals, including the announcement of logistics company DHL as their first training kit sponsor.

Yes you read that right. DHL will sponsor United’s training kit in a four-year deal worth a reported £40 million. I am not aware of any other sports team in the world that has been able to sell sponsorship on the club’s playing kit and training kit to different sponsors.

To put the DHL perspective, United’s £10m a year sponsorship deal for its training kit, is more than the sponsorship deal that half the clubs in the Premier League have for their jerseys!

UEFA has announced that a total of €754.1m was distributed to clubs participating in the Champions League last season and that Barcelona and Manchester United received the largest amounts.

The €754.1m prize money allotted to the 32 teams who figured from the group stage onwards consisted of €413m in fixed amounts plus €341,100,000 from the market pool.

All the clubs were entitled to a minimum €7.2m in accordance with the distribution system, which awarded a basic participation bonus of €3.9m, plus €3.3m from the six €550,000 match bonuses given per group game.

IMG_0918-eThe chairman of Uefa’s Financial Control Panel, Jean-Luc Dehaene says that he wants more details on Manchester City‘s 10-year deal, £400m sponsorship deal with Etihad Airways. Etihad will now sponsor both the club’s shirt and the stadium. The deal has drawn criticism that it is an attempt to circumvent European football’s strict new financial rules due to the close ties between Etihad (which is owned by the Abu Dhabi government) and Man City (Aby Dhabi’s ruler is City owner Sheikh Mansour’s half-brother).

In an interview on BBC, Matt Slater asked Jean-Luc Dehaene what his reaction was when he first heard about City’s deal:

In something akin to the pot calling the kettle black, Chelsea boss Andre Villas-Boas has called Manchester City’s signing of Sergio Aguero for around £35million as “unfair”.

Villas-Boas feels that City’s financial dominance gives them an unnatural advantage in the transfer market.

“I think it’s unfair. I think it’s pretty clear that they are building a squad to fight for the title,” he said ahead of Chelsea`s clash with Aston Villa in the final of the Barclays Asia Trophy on Saturday night. “It’s for [Roberto] Mancini to say what his objectives are but my personal perspective is that they are making good signings and that they can threaten for the league.”

Remember when the Venky’s group bought Blackburn Rovers and said that they would provide the funds needed to turn Rovers into a Champions League side?

Venkys bought Rovers for around £25 million and agreed to take on the £18 million overdraft in the form of a mortgage.

The Mirror however is reporting that the bank are demanding that the £18 million overdraft amount be reduced, with the cash from the sale of Phil Jones to Manchester United.

This is a huge blow to Rovers boss Steve Kean who had been looking to break their transfer record and sign a striker like Mirco Vucinic, Papiss Cisse or Jermain Defoe for fees around or over £10million.

Arsene Wenger has accused Manchester City of playing by ‘their own rules’, as he believes City’s new £400million naming rights deal with Etihad Airways makes a mockery of UEFA’s Financial Fair Play initiative.

The Man City deal, which dwarfs the 15-year, £100m contract Arsenal made with Emirates Airlines in 2006, would see Etihad Airways, owned by the Abu Dhabi government, create up to £40m in new revenue per season for City.

Manchester City have confirmed that the City of Manchester Stadium will be renamed the Etihad Stadium after signing a 10-year deal with the airline. The Abu Dhabi-based company is already the club’s shirt sponsor.

“We are delighted to be expanding our relationship with Etihad Airways through this partnership agreement,” said City chief executive Garry Cook.

The new agreement is sure to be reviewed by UEFA as City are owned by Sheikh Mansour, who is a member of the ruling family of Abu Dhabi, and Etihad Airways is the National Airline of United Arab Emirates

Manchester United Campeón 2010-11According to the News of the World, United are in discussion with Nike over a world record £400 million kit deal. Nike currently pay United £23.5m per year, and with their existing 10-year deal expiring in 2015, it makes sense to open discussions now on a new deal.

When United moved from Umbro to Nike in 2002, their new deal with Nike set the standard for kit deals in football. Over the length of the contract United have received £303m from Nike. While the United kit deal was record-breaking when it was signed, it is far from that now. Nike recently signed a £38m-a-year deal with the French national team to cover the next seven years, while Barcelona take in about £26m from their kit deal.

The Sunday Times reported yesterday that the team is considering selling shares on the Hong Kong stock exchange in a move that could potentially raise £1.7bn.

Selling shares via a stock float will allow the Glazers to take money out of the club without selling the club or adding to the clubs debt. Proceeds could also be used to reduce or eliminate the clubs £490m debt.

Duncan Drasdo, chief executive of the Manchester United Supporters Trust, said selling shares “could be an opportunity for supporters to once again share in the ownership of their club”. However, Mr Drasdo said that MUST had three concerns:

Winning the Premier League was worth more than £15million to Manchester United while West Ham earned a mere £756,000.

The payout that teams get is determined by where they finish in the league. An the difference of a place or two can be worth millions of pounds. Newcastle for example finished 12th the Premier League and received a little over £6.8million. But if they had not thrown away that three goal lead against West Brom yesterday, they would have finished in 9th place and earned £9.2million. So that defensive collapse cost Newcastle United £2.4million!

2010/11 Premier League prize funds