Emirates Airlines line-up Real Madrid shirt sponsorship deal

posted on 30/04/2012: 1931 views

Emirates Airlines are in talks to replace Austrian betting firm win as Real Madrid's main shirt sponsor from 2013, Sport360° understands.

Emirates added to their extensive sports sponsorship portfolio in July last year when they became a Partner and Official Airline to the Spanish giants.

The five-year sponsorship deal marked the first anniversary since Emirates launched flights to the Spanish capital and gave the Dubai-based airline brand visibility at the Estadio Bernabeu and Real Madrid City, as well as promotional and hospitality rights worldwide. '

"The airline shares our belief in loyalty, effort, commitment and innovation and these common principles will create a special understanding," Madrid president Florentino Perez said at the time.

"I believe we are at the beginning of an intense relationship that will bring the club closer to the millions of fans that it has around the world."

Nine months on and Emirates are understood to have set their sights on becoming the club's main shirt sponsor as Madrid's existing deal with bwin is due to expire at the end of the 2012-13 season.

Bwin have been Madrid's title sponsor since 2007 and renewed their contract two years later in a deal believed to have been worth in excess of €20million a year.

However, industry insiders have informed Sport360° that Emirates are intent on usurping bwin in the next round of negotiations with some claiming a €25million a year offer is already on the table for the honour of adorning Madrid's famed white shirt.

If the claims are to be proved accurate, the deal would represent the third biggest shirt sponsorship deal in history behind only Barcelona's link-up with the Qatar Foundation (€30.5m) and Bayern Munich's Deutsche Telekom partnership (€29m).

Madrid would become the sixth team in European football to be emblazoned with the Fly Emirates logo after Arsenal, AC Milan, Paris Saint-Germain, Hamburg and Olympiacos.

A spokesperson for Emirates refused to comment on the Madrid story when contacted by Sport360°. – Sport 360°

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