Japanese beer company Asahi Super Dry will be the face of Manchester City's training kit this season.
Following the success of the deal last year that saw the Tunnel Club renamed as part of a multi-year deal with four clubs across the City Football Group, Asahi have stepped up their commitment to City with this latest partnership. The men's and women's teams will have the branding across the front of their tops for training and matchday warm-ups of the brand's new non-alcoholic beer Asahi Super Dry 0.0%.
Asahi replace cryptocurrency exchange company OKX, who have themselves increased their investment by becoming the new sleeve partner on a three-year deal set to earn the Blues £55m. That is a significant increase on the previous deal with Nexen Tire, and Asahi are paying more to be the training kit of the Treble winners as well as their other deals.
City enjoyed a record year for revenue last year and are expecting to smash the current highest a British club has achieved by over £60m, according to their CEO Ferran Soriano. These latest deals indicate that even more money will be coming in for the 2023/24 report - even if Pep Guardiola and his players will have to go to extraordinary lengths to match their efforts on the pitch.
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“It’s been spectacular," said Soriano. "We know that this year our revenues are going to be above £700million. This is the British record and we are probably No 1 in Europe and also the world. This has happened over the last decade and it’s based on the football that we play.
“Sometimes marketing seems very sophisticated, but this is down to the club. We have a good football club, we play very good football - and we win. That helps us sell more merchandise. Our sales last season were 80 percent more than the previous season.
“We thought that was spectacular. But guess what? In the first few weeks ahead of the coming season, we are selling 80 percent more merchandise again. These are real numbers. Four days after winning the Champions League, our sales were as high as what we usually sell in a month.
“This comes with winning and playing good football. It’s natural that more people want to watch our games, more people want to buy our merchandise, more companies want to sponsor us."
