Kieran Maguire: Liverpool set to take ‘financial hit’ after £80m deal terminated
Liverpool are set to take a six-figure hit after Uefa terminated its sponsorship deal with state-owned Russian energy giants Gazprom.
That is the view of finance guru Kieran Maguire, speaking exclusively to Football Insider about the fallout from the Russia-Ukraine crisis.
Uefa confirmed on Monday (28 February) that the Gazprom deal has been scrapped in direct response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Times reported last Saturday (26 February) that the partnership was worth £80million over the remaining two years of its contract length.
Liverpool posted a loss of £4.8m in their latest set of accounts, with £266.1m of total revenue generated by media income.
Maguire predicts that Uefa’s sponsor pool is diverse enough that the Merseysiders will not take a huge hit from the Gazprom write-off.
“It’s a senior sponsor alongside Heineken, Ford etcetera,” he told Football Insider‘s Adam Williams.
“Uefa is always grateful for sponsors but the preeminent source of its income is for broadcasting rights.
“There are 96 teams in the three Uefa competitions. Spread that between them and it’ll probably be worth six figures in terms of the financial hit they’ll take.
“For Liverpool, it could be worth around about the same as the prize money for a draw in a Champions League group stage match.”
Liverpool are one result away from the Champions League quarter-finals after a 2-0 away win over Inter Milan in the last-16 in February.
The final has been moved from St Petersburg to Paris by Uefa.
In other news, expert issues “devastating” Thiago Alcantara injury claim as triple Liverpool blow confirmed.