So troubled financial mega-giants AIG have informed galactic soccer gods Manchester United they will no longer pay mega-millions to splash their initials across the front of the team’s famous red jerseys.
Some piddly little detail about being a front-and-centre flashpoint in the global bank crisis somehow makes the four-year, 55.6-million quid sponsorship team a titch bit of an unaffordable luxury.
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United are apparently unconcerned, citing great and friendly corporate connections all over Malaysia, South Korea and Saudi Arabia.
Let’s see – Arabian peninsula, infinite cash, strong interest in soccer, clear and present connections to Manchester ….
Well, maybe I’m just feeling impish this morning, but what about – Manchester City?
If I’m trillionaire and City owner Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan (from Adu Dhabi) and I’ve just bought my way into the English Premier League, and my team is still struggling in the table despite my awesome and almost incalculable wealth, I’d be looking to raise my profile and make a statement that would ring in every single corner of the footballing world.
And what better way to do it, than be the man who put the words “Manchester City” on the front of Manchester United’s shirts?
Who cares if there’s rules against it? A trillion dollars can smooth over any number of petty, technical, bureaucratic obstacles. Sure, there would be complaints that City were helping United financially, but this would never be a deal about money. This would be a profound and powerful statement that money does – in fact – conquer all … something United believes deeply anyway.
Just the name. No sky blue on the United shirts. And if Fulham owner Mohammad al-Fayed then tries to knock Samsung off the blue jerseys of near-neighbours Chelsea? Hey, it’s tough financial times, and we just created an entirely new stream of income.
Sounds like a good day’s work to me.
Onward!