FSG face £50m threat as major Liverpool sponsorship challenge looms

Next year will mark 50 years since the first sponsor was emblazoned across the shirt of an English club in competitive competition.

Back in 1974, Coventry City broke new ground in the English game when they became the first club to sell the space on the front of their shirts to a company. In the case of the Sky Blues it was the now dormant British car manufacturer Talbot.

That move saw more and more clubs gradually adopt the tactic of selling front of shirt space for much-needed cash, with the floodgates well and truly opened in the late 1980s and 1990s. The main shirt sponsor soon became the most important part of a football club’s commercial activity, the asset that yielded the highest sum when it came to sponsorship.

In Liverpool’s case they have had fewer sponsors than most in the English game. Only five, in fact.

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Hitachi were the first in 1979, followed by Crown Paints (1982-1988), Candy (1988-1992), Carlsberg (1992-2010) and present sponsor Standard Chartered, whose current deal will run to the end of the 2026/27 season at a sum of around £50m per year.

Liverpool’s commercial approach has long been geared towards maintaining relationships and growing the value of them. That has become increasingly important with firms now seeking more than just their name on the front of the home and away kits. Blue chip companies want a number of activations with their sponsorships, ways to get into the community and reach people on a more personal level with their brands. Liverpool have been experts in making these deals increasingly valuable through the way