Kieran Maguire: Liverpool to pocket ‘money for nothing’ after ‘huge’ £488m deal agreed
Liverpool and their Premier League colleagues are set to pocket sponsorship money from EA Sports with the games company closing in on a £488million agreement with the Premier League.
That is the opinion of finance expert Kieran Maguire, who spoke exclusively to Football Insider about the imminent six-year agreement between the two parties.
As per Sports Business (13 February), EA Sports are “closing in” on a £488million six-year extension with the Premier League.
The deal would be worth more than £80million a year to the league and £4million per club when divided between the 20 teams in the division.
EA Sports cut ties with Fifa back in May 2022 after sharing three decades of partnership with the sporting body.
New York Times report that Fifa were demanding at least double the $150million annual fee the games company was paying in their latest agreement.
Maguire insists the Premier League are essentially being paid for “nothing”, with only their IP and badge licensing being traded in return.
“EA Sports needs the Premier League more than the Premier League needs EA Sports following the decision to break its relationship with FIFA for its flagship game,” Maguire told Football Insider.
“Therefore, the Premier League has been able to double their money in what is a huge deal with the games company.
” From the Premier League’s perspective, it’s essentially money for nothing for them and their clubs.
“They are giving away their IP and badges, but that’s as far as it goes.
“This is a classic case of the Premier League being able to benefit from not tainting its name by not having too many questionable sponsors and partners.
“This is something the Premier League needs to monitor carefully given some of the suspect deals made by its clubs.“
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