Reds seal 'largest sponsor deal'

LONDON: Liverpool football club announced late on Sunday a sponsorship deal with British bank Standard Chartered, reportedly worth £80 million over four years.

The deal starting in July 2010 was the "largest commercial agreement in Liverpool's history," a statement on the club's website said. Media reports said the deal was worth some £20 million per season, which would equal the most lucrative ever in English football, but this could not be confirmed. The figure would match the deal struck by Manchester United with Aon Corp, the American financial giant earlier this year, reports said.

Under the Liverpool deal, the bank's logo and name will replace Carlsberg as the main sponsor on the English Premier League club's shirt, ending a 17-year relationship with the side. "This partnership brings together two highly successful organisations with a really strong cultural and strategic fit," Liverpool managing director Christian Purslow said in the statement.

The club said the deal aimed to step up Liverpool's profile in the lucrative Asian markets as well as in Africa and the Middle East, after a pre-season tour of Singapore and Thailand. Standard Chartered, an emerging markets specialist, is listed on both the Hong Kong and London stock exchanges.