Daniel Levy Aims To Spread The Word About Spurs in Asia

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Levy, chairman of English soccer club Tottenham Hotspur has announced a multi-million pound shirt sponsorship deal with AIA, a Hon King based  insurance company.

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Daniel Levy, chairman of North London soccer club Tottenham Hotspur,  like anyone who find themselves running one  of the World’s soccer clubs these days is well aware that the key to success on the field is increasingly being generated by deals done in the boardroom.

A soccer club’s success on the playing field can be greatly affected by the sponsorship deals that they succeed in making, which in turn, affects the money they will have in the bank to pay the skyrocketing transfer fees and mind boggling transfer demands that the World’s top players demand before signing for any particular club.

That may well be the reason why Levy and  Tottenham Hotspur have launched a major drive  to attract the vast sponsorship deals available in soccer crazy Asia, and has started the ball rolling by signing up a major sponsorship deal with AIA, the pan-Asia life insurance company, reportedly worth 100 million pounds ($150 million)  over the next five years, AIA becoming  Tottenham Hotspur’s (or the Spurs as they are generally known in the UK)  principal global partners from next season.

AIA have been sponsoring the Spurs’ shirts in domestic  cup competitions in the current  season, however from next year onwards, their  name  will figure prominently on the club’s jerseys in all competitions from next season until at least 2019, replacing that of computer hardware giants HP (Hewlett-Packard).

Asia is recognized as being a hot bed not only for sponsorship, but also  a  huge source of  income for the top English Premier League clubs, thanks to income from  overseas television broadcast rights.

Tottenham have lived in the shadows of  the top  English Premier League  soccer clubs, particularly  Manchester United, Liverpool and their London rivals Arsenal and Chelsea who have remained the highest profile  clubs in Asia.

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The English Premier League remains one of the most competitive in the World, where every year, each  of the teams  that finish in the top four places earn a place in the incredibly financially lucrative European Champions League.

For the last  fifteen years, only three English teams have featured  exclusively in the Champions League, Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal with the fourth and final place being shared among a number of English clubs, with Tottenham only makes it to the Championship twice, most recently in season 2010/2011

Manchester United  who have won the Premier League twice, are particularly popular throughout Asia, with  17 of their  35 global commercial sponsorships  coming from the region, with some of them being particularly lucrative.

With Tottenham currently sitting fifth in the Premier League it looks like they will be missing out of the Champions League again this season, but with Levy at the helm, the club has lost none of its ambition, with a brand new 56, 000-seater new stadium currently  under development , to replace the Spur’s now outdated stadium at White Hart Lane, where they have played for the last one hundred years, and has a maximum seating capacity of just 33, 000.

Levy has lots of money in the bank after  having completed the largest transfer deal in soccer history, having  transferred Gareth Bale to cash rich  and power hungry  Spanish club Real Madrid for an undisclosed fee, estimated to be around £80 million ($120 million), some of which was immediately invested in strengthening the Spurs playing squad.

Daniel Levy has  been chairman of Tottenham Hotspur since 2001, after ENIC International Ltd bought a controlling stake in the club.

ENIC International Ltd is  an investment company, sports, entertainment and media group, which is part of the Tavistock Group, owned by London property magnate Joe Lewis.

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