Markets

Manchester United in Talks With Aon for Shirt Sponsorship

By Jim Edwards

Updated on: June 2, 2009 / 11:42 AM EDT / MoneyWatch

Just days after Manchester United reportedly entered "advanced talks" with India's Sahara Group, the club is now allegedly "90 percent certain" to sign a deal with insurance giant Aon to replace AIG as its $100 million lead sponsor.

The Mirror reports the deal is worth Â£20 million a year. (That's about $33 million.) Man Utd's current deal with AIG is worth about $25 million a year. Thus, if the report is true, it will mean that Man Utd will be one of the few Premier League teams to increase the value of their media offering this year. BNET previously noted that the value of football lead sponsorship slots has slid or been stagnant this year, with even major teams like Liverpool and Chelsea stuck in the Â£7 - 10 million range.

It also solves a financial problem for Man Utd which all but required the club to increase its price for the lead slot, as BNET noted back in April.

Whether the Mirror's report is true or not is a legitimate question. Reuters had even reported a date for the Sahara deal to be signed, but now ... who knows? The idea of Aon on the front of the Man Utd shirt makes a lot more sense than Sahara, which is unknown outside India. One wrinkle in the talks will be the design of the new shirt: Various football blogs show the 2009/2010 season shirt carrying a vintage chevron across the chest (and, curiously, the Saudi Telecom logo), which would push a corporate logo further down the body of the shirt to the bellybutton area. Doesn't sound like much, but that will make the logo slightly less visible during matchplay breaks, when the cameras often focus on faces and upper body shots.