Paris Saint-Germain will have new jerseys next season after multimillion-dollar sponsor deal
One of the most popular jerseys in global soccer is about to get a remake with French club Paris Saint-Germain announcing Thursday it has reached a multiyear sponsorship agreement with Paris-based Accor hotels.
ALL, Accor Live Limitless, the hospitality chain’s new lifestyle loyalty program, will become PSG’s principal partner and the team’s jersey sponsor beginning in the 2019-2020 season. It will replace Emirates Airline, the Dubai-based company whose logo has been on the club’s shirts since 2006.
The annual value of the Emirates partnership was about $35 million, and although terms of the new deal were not released, published reports last summer said PSG was seeking a contract worth more than $90 million a season.
The most lucrative jersey sponsorship deal in history is the seven-year $559-million agreement English Premier League club Manchester United signed with Chevrolet in 2014.
PSG officials say they are also seeking a new kit contract with Nike, which manufactures the team’s uniforms. Spanish giant Real Madrid currently has the most lucrative kit deal after signing a 10-year pact with Adidas in the fall for $1.25 billion. That agreement, which is different from a jersey sponsorship, doubled what the reigning European champions had been getting. It will begin next season.
PSG’s partnership with Accor’s loyalty platform is in keeping with the club’s stepped-up effort to make the team a sportswear and lifestyle brand. In September, the team became the first soccer club to partner with the iconic Jordan Brand, signing an exclusive three-year global partnership that produced a collection of more than 90 performance, training and lifestyle products.
“Of course we are,” Jean-Martial Ribes, PSG’s managing director for communication said when asked if the team was the global soccer team of the future. “There are the IBMs. You know, the old clubs. And there’s the new generation of clubs, like Amazon looking for new ways of doing business, new ways of attracting customers. But customers who are not necessarily football fans. You go wider.
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“We’re going places that no other people are going to. We’re doing deals that no other club is doing. “
Over the last seven years, Ribes said, PSG has gone from $90 million in annual revenues to more than $540 million, making it one of the seven richest soccer clubs in the world, according to financial services company Deloitte.
With one loss in 24 Ligue 1 games this season, PSG is cruising to its sixth French title in seven seasons. It boasts a star-studded roster that includes Brazil’s Neymar, Uruguayan Edinson Cavani, Argentina’s Angel di Maria and 20-year-old Kylian Mbappe, the French World Cup champion generally considered the best young player on the planet.
It is one of just four clubs to have made it to the knockout stages of the Champions League in each of the last seven seasons.
Accor’s 4,800 hotels worldwide include the Raffles, Fairmont, Sofitel, Pullman, Novotel, Mercure and Ibis brands. The PSG-Accor deal was announced hours before Maryland-based hotel chain Marriott, revealed its own partnership between its loyalty program Bonvoy and Manchester United.
kevin.baxter@latimes.com | Twitter: @kbaxter11
