The Biggest Yearly Sponsorship Deals In Football History

With billions of fans around the world, football is a massive platform for companies to advertise their products and services. As a result, brands are always on the lookout to establish partnerships with players and football competitions, but also have their name featured on stadium stands and clubs’ social media.

However, the most visible item in football is the kits, worn by the biggest stars in the sport, and which are, in turn, bought by millions of football fans. This simple piece of clothing is consequently a prime spot for advertising any type of brand and the focus of multimillion deals that are lucrative for clubs and brands alike.

In this article, we’ll look at the most lucrative sponsorship deals in history.

Manchester United – Chevrolet (£64 million per year)

In an attempt to expand their business in Europe, the American car manufacturer, Chevrolet, struck one of the biggest sponsorship deals in history with Manchester United in 2012. The seven-year agreement (from 2014 to 2021) was reported to be worth £64 million per year.

While there were talks of an extension to the contract, both brands parted ways following United’s inability to negotiate similar terms to those agreed upon nine years ago. Adding to this, the team’s poor results in the Premier League and Champions League provided less incentive for the brand. In fact, the Red Devils failed to win the Premier League during the seven years they were sponsored by Chevrolet. Going into the new season, they aren’t expected to do much better as, currently, Premier League outright football betting odds price United at odds of 16/1 to win the competition.

Real Madrid – Fly Emirates (£60 million per year)

Real Madrid signed their first deal with the Dubai-based airline Fly Emirates back in 2013 and that lasted for five years, seeing the Spanish club earn roughly £28 million yearly. However, after one of the most successful runs in the club’s history, in which they won four Champions League titles in five years, Emirates had to up their budget to guarantee its spot on Real’s kit in 2018. 

As result, the club and the airline company signed a £60-million-per-year deal to maintain Emirates’ logo on los Merengues’ shirts. The company also included some other contractual extras: two huge LED screens with advertising on each side of the stadium and extra advertising spots in training kits. 

Manchester United – Team Viewer (£47 million per season)

After failing to renegotiate their previous deal with Chevrolet, Manchester United announced they had signed a new deal with the German software company TeamViewer. The firm provides software that enables remote computer maintenance, supporting state-of-the-art technologies such as fingerprint recognition and two-factor authentication.

In this new five-year partnership, the Red Devils are reportedly set to earn £47 million yearly, a £17 million loss in comparison with their Chevrolet deal. The agreement is also estimated to be the biggest standalone shirt deal in the Premier League. 

Although United’s financial stability has been affected in recent months, this new partnership is set to be one of the biggest in football and is expected to be highly profitable for the club.

Among the biggest kit deals ever are also FC Barcelona’s deal with the Japanese e-commerce company, Rakuten, Chelsea’s Three sponsorship and Accor’s deal with PSG. These examples just prove how lucrative a little space on the front of a jersey can be.