Sponsorship

On 23 November 2005, Vodafone ended their £36 million, four-year shirt sponsorship deal with Manchester United. On 6 April 2006, chief executive David Gill announced AIG as the new shirt sponsors of Manchester United in a British record shirt sponsorship deal of £56.5 million to be paid over four years (£14.1 million a year).[17] Manchester United now has the most valuable sponsorship deal in the world, due to the renegotiation of the £15 million-a-year deal Juventus had with oil firm Tamoil.[18] The four-year agreement has also been heralded, by extension, as the largest sponsorship deal in British history, eclipsing Chelsea's deal with Samsung.

Companies that Manchester United currently have sponsorship deals with include:[19]

• AIG - Principal Sponsor

• Nike - Official Sportswear Partner

• Audi - Official Car Supplier and Dugout Seat Provider

• Budweiser - Official Beer

• Betfred - Official Betting Partner

• Century Radio - Official Radio Station

The club has only ever had three main shirt sponsors, the longest-running being Sharp Electronics, who sponsored the club from 1982 to 2000, when Vodafone took over in an initial four-year £30 million deal. Similarly, the club has only had four independent kit manufacturers, the first being Admiral. Adidas took over in the mid-1980s, only for local sportswear company Umbro to replace them in 1992. Umbro's sponsorship lasted for a whole ten years, until the club struck a record-breaking £302.9 million deal with Nike. The agreement with Nike will last an initial 13 years, although the American company does have the option to cancel the deal in 2008. Otherwise, the contract will run until at least 2015.[20]