Whoever wins the Premier League this season will have had to see off the ultimate challenger.
Liverpool and Manchester City face off on Sunday, two teams who have been light years ahead of the rest this season, two teams who are among the finest to have competed in the modern era. With things so tight at the top, with City leading by a point and both teams on 30 games, this weekend's game feels title defining.
Football is about trophies, and winning and adding to the history of the Reds and their bulging trophy cabinet will be the focus of boss Jurgen Klopp, a man who has already written his name into Liverpool folklore but who still has the potential to leave an extraordinary lasting legacy when the time does come for him to depart Anfield. To have the status as Premier League champions is what the players and staff crave, but there is also a financial benefit to be had from it too.
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In terms of what can be qualified, the winners of the Premier League stand to make £6m more than those who finish in second place. That is a figure that arrives from a £2m increase on the merit payment from the Premier League (£38m for winners), the £3m extra that arrives from the Champions League market pool share the following season, and £1m merit share from the overseas TV money.
In the modern era £6m seems like a drop in the ocean. But winning is something that is key to growing the brand of the football club globally, whether that manifests itself in increased interest in merchandise or through higher revenues able to be raised through the ability to leverage the status as champions when it comes to arranging pre-season tours.
Liverpool's title success in 2020 brought an end to their 30-year wait for an English league title. But with the world in the midst of a pandemic and fans unable to share the joy the occasion had to be celebrated from afar. The physical separation between fans and club also meant that the Reds were unable to truly make the most of that success in terms of driving revenues forward as they may have wanted to. They were unable to take to a pre-season tour as champions of England, winners of the world's favourite and most watched football league, thus missing out on the boost that would have delivered.
Manchester United are a shadow of their former selves but still manage to be one of the biggest football clubs on the planet when it comes to generating revenue, and a lot of that comes from the seeds planted many years ago during their sustained periods of success on the pitch that saw them cultivate huge fan bases across the globe, particularly in the Far East. That kind of global reach allowed them in roads into new markets that other clubs hadn't yet tapped, and while the lack of success in recent years will undoubtedly start to test that relationship that has been so fruitful for United with its global audience, it has been one that has allowed them to remain a financial behemoth.
For Liverpool, breaking into that club of winning multiple Premier League titles, with a squad that has appeal to not only the English audience but the South American and African market due to the make up of their squad, has the potential to be incredibly lucrative. Having the Nike deal in place, where the Reds receive 20 per cent of the sales value of global merchandise on top of a £30m per year guaranteed sum, wasn't something the club had when they last won the Premier League, and the potential is there to maximise that should they win this year's crown, especially with retail opportunities back up and running as the world returns to normal post pandemic.
The Reds have a number of sponsorship deals that will soon be up for renewal, the most prominent of those being the front of shirt sponsorship deal that they currently have with Standard Chartered that comes to an end in 2023 and currently pays around £40m per year. Going into negotiations with potential partners over the deal, whether Standard Chartered or otherwise, with the crown of Premier League winners will aid the club's ability to generate more from these deals, something that they will need to push forward to keep pace with the increasingly competitive financial landscape of football.
So, while a £6m boost in prize money would be most welcome it is what Liverpool could earn from the status of being champions of England that would be the most valuable. But that will hardly be a consideration on Sunday when all that matters is three points and taking a huge step towards a remarkable triumph, one that the Reds will want to share with their fans after being denied the chance to do so in 2019. That would be priceless.
