Real Madrid to sign new shirt deal

Spanish Real Madrid and an unnamed sponsor will sign a contract that will be the biggest shirt sponsorship deal in world football, according to Madrid's president Ramon Calderon.

The new sponsor, which Calderon did not name, will replace BenQ, the German handset business of Taiwan's BenQ Corporation that went bankrupt.

Calderon gave no details on the amount involved in the deal.

"Now we have to change sponsor. In a week, we will sign for a sum which is unequaled by anyone," Calderon was quoted as saying by El Pais, a daily paper.

Calderon said the amount involved was "unimaginable" for any other club.

Madrid's five-year deal with BenQ was supposed to continue until 2010 and was worth EUR100 million.

At present, Italian Juventus has the biggest jersey sponsorship contract in world football, a five-year deal worth EUR110 million with Libyan oil company Tamoil.

Although it is experiencing its worst slump on the field since the early 1950s, Madrid is the world's biggest club when it comes to revenue.

The club increased its income by 17 percent to EUR 275.7 million for the 2004-05 season, according to the most recent numbers.

Last November, Madrid announced the sale of its television broadcast rights to production company Mediapro in a seven-year deal worth EUR 1.1 billion, the most expensive in club football.

Calderon's announcement of the shirt sponsorship deal came a week before a court is due to announce whether 10,511 postal votes will count in the outcome of the club's presidential election that was held last July.

Source: euFootball.BIZ © Copyright 2006 - All rights reserved.