Sahara group to sponsor Manchester United?

Manchester United is scouting for a new shirt sponsor. Its present shirt sponsor is troubled American insurance company AIG. AIG almost went bankrupt before the US government interrupted with a $85 bn bailout. The final bailout was rumored to be around $152 bn. AIG is selling all its assets and might need more money to be pumped. The last thing AIG want right now is to get on Wayne Roone’s shirt. 

                                            

Though AIG’s contract runs through 2010, Man United is looking to either replace AIG or preempting the expiration of its contract. A 4 year contract with the team costs $79 million. The previous deal with Vodafone was for $50 million. The team wants to sweeten the sponsorship deal a bit. Manchester is the worlds biggest football club with 330 million supporters. It could as well be the richest club.

Manchester United is owned by American businessman Malcolm Irving Glazer who also owns NFL team Tampa Bay  Buccaneers. Letters were sent to top companies of the world and Sahara India Pariwar received one.

Subroto Roy’s Sahara group is also the sponsor of Indian cricket team. Sahara group will respond to the dossier sent by the English football club. Earlier shirt sponsors for Man United were Sharp Electronics and Vodafone. Other sponsors of the team include Nike and Budweiser.

This would be the second sponsorship success for India Inc after Tata’s Ferrari sponsorship. The global recession is really helping some Indian companies. Companies which were lying low are making the most out of it.

I don’t think it will help football in India but it will definitely help boost India Inc’s image. At least the Sahara group has a reason to watch something other than cricket.

*Image source : Wikipedia. Man United player Wayne Rooney