Liverpool have agreed an £80 million sponsorship deal with Standard Chartered, the London-based international bank and have vowed to use the incoming cash on team rebuilding.
Standard Chartered will replace Carlsberg as Liverppool’s shirt sponsors from July 2010 and the deal is worth £20 million per season.
Despite levels of debt that are estimated at £350 million, Christian Purslow, the managing director of Liverpool said: "The fans will be pleased and relieved to know that Liverpool’s revenues, profits and income is the club’s, it stays in the club, it doesn’t go out of the club, its job is to support our football team and so I can assure you, as we drive forward our turnover, we will invest a sensible element in our wage bill and a sensible level of our profits in our transfers."
Purslow added: "I want us to be the best football team in the world and there is a pretty clear link between being the best team and having the best performance off the field. But I stress doing so in a way where we pick our spots and our partners carefully, and we never lose sight of why we are doing it and who we are doing it with. We are doing it for our football club and in a way that is consistent with our history and our soul."
The contract with Standard Chartered equals Manchester United's four-year £80m deal with Aon, who will replace AIG in 2010, as the game's most lucrative shirt deal.