Manchester City have signed an extraordinary £150million deal with their current shirt sponsors Etihad, which will rename the current City of Manchester stadium to Etihad Airways stadium from next season. This is the richest football stadium naming rights deal in the history of English football.
Man City's stadium name sold for record £150m
Etihad an Abu Dhabi based airline service which already pays £2.3million a year for kit sponsorship, have signed the stadium naming rights for 15 years. This comes to £10m per year and this will be a significant step to reduce debts while UEFA’s new financial fair play rule gets enforced. City owner Sheikh Mansour has spent around £1billion after he brought the club in September 2008. Since then the club has been splashing huge cash in the transfer market and also the players’ wages are astronomical in figure. With UEFA’s new financial fair play rule, which will be enforced from 2012-13 season, says that the clubs shouldn’t spend more money than they actually earn. Man City will have to balance their books and will look to increase their revenue and shed their losses. This deal is a huge step towards that.
The previous highest paid naming right was with Arsenal, who signed a £100m deal for 15 years with Emirates in 2006. This was made at the time when they moved from Highbury to their new stadium. Though Arsenal’s naming rights included an eight year kit sponsorship deal which was around £6m a year. But City’s stadium naming rights are independent of the kit sponsorship. City moved from Maine Road to the Eastlands stadium in 2003. They have been paying Manchester City Council £2m-3m per year since.
UEFA will be monitoring this issue very closely; the deal will come under scanner to see that it meets all the regulations. UEFA will ensure that owner Sheikh Mansour is not using such deals to inflate the balance sheets of his club which will ensure financial fair play.
Tags: English Football, English Premier League, EPL, Etihad Airways Stadium, Man City, Manchester City, Sheikh Mansour
