Financial catasrophe at Arsenal… or, indeed, not
Not flying quite so high
For those of you who don’t bury your noses in the financial papers during the morning commute, the big news is that it’s all gone bosoms upwards in Dubai – specifically for an investment company called Dubai World, who have been hit by an almighty cock punch, and are now about $59 billion in debt. They were/are the people ploughing cash money into Emirates, the airline company – and more importantly, the Arsenal sponsors.
In 2004, they made a deal with the North London club worth around £90 million to appear on the shirts until 2013-14, and, of course, to have their name on the team’s stadium until 2020-21. With debt up to their eyeballs, there is a chance that maintaining their name on a football shirt will no longer top the list of company priorities.
Yet, how losing this deal might effect the club appears to attract conflicting viewpoints.
The steady hands at The Guardian almost suggest that it would be a good thing for the club, as they could start up something more lucrative elsewhere, with only £28 million outstanding on the £90 million deal.
Whilst the hysterical senors over at Sport.es have barged into the room like a fat man lugging the head of Osama Bin Laden, and declared at the top of their voices that Arsenal are doomed. Doomed!
According to the Spanish site, the Arsenal honchos will soon have to ship out the likes of Fabregas, Arshavin, Van Persie, Nasri and the rest, just to make ends meet.
An unlikely scenario, but Arsenal fans, consider this not a red, but a beige alert.
1 response so far
Robert // December 2, 2009 at 5:24 pm
That Arsenal is in crisis is a load of rubbish. Sponsorship rates have gone up a long way since the Emirates deal was struck, and if the Emirates deal was to come apart it would represent a great opportunity to Arsenal to go elsewhere for a better deal. The Emirates contract is for £90-100m, for which Emirates get 15 years of stadium naming rights and 8 years of shirt sponsorship. Liverpool have recently announced a Standard Chartered shirt sponsorship of £80m for 4 years, and Liverpool are recently quoted that a £250m stadium naming deal is possible.
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