On the day that Liverpool face Villarreal in the Champions League semi-final first leg at Anfield, here are your Liverpool FC morning headlines for Wednesday 27, April.
Man City suffer injury blow in Champions League tie with Real Madrid
Manchester City have been handed a fresh injury blow after John Stones was forced off through injury in their Champions League semi-final first leg against Real Madrid this evening.
The England international was a doubt heading into the match, though started the game against the Spanish giants at right-back. Stones' evening came to an end just 36 minutes into the match, however, as he made way for Fernandinho.
READ MORE: FSG behind the scenes move gives Liverpool best chance of keeping Mohamed Salah
READ MORE: Jurgen Klopp 'need' clear as Liverpool seek end to shock Champions League run against Villarreal
After being substituted, images emerged of the former Everton centre-back stood in the players' tunnel with a distraught look on his face.
Stones missed the Sky Blues' 5-1 hammering of Watford at the weekend having exited the field of play with muscle tightness in City's prior game against Brighton. This setback comes at a bad time for the Sky Blues, who are also without right-back Kyle Walker as they prepare to enter a crucial period in the season, going head-to-head with Liverpool for the Premier League title.
Liverpool shirt sponsorship latest as Standard Chartered option emerges for FSG
For any major football team the nearing of a major partnership brings about the need to see what comes next, and making sure that it is better than what went before.
There are few more valuable commercial deals for Liverpool than the one that sits on the front of their shirts. Since 2010 that partnership has been with financial services giant Standard Chartered, a deal that has risen in value from the £20m per year deal over four year that was inked under the ownership of George Gillett and Tom Hicks back in 2009. It is a deal that is now worth double that annually, having risen from £20m per year to £30m per year by 2015, and a further £10m in 2018.
Standard Chartered have the option to continue their partnership with the Reds and they have expressed an interest in doing that, the ECHO understands, with discussions said to be 'live and ongoing'. But Monday morning saw the development that the club were seeking other avenues, including the new and still controversial market of cryptocurrency and blockchain.
As it stands, however, little has changed. Liverpool are in the process of sounding out firms from a variety of industries over the partnership, largely to determine just how much the value the partnership holds in 2022, how it compares to rivals and how much leverage success on the pitch has changed their ability to maximise revenues.
When Standard Chartered agreed a deal to extend their partnership with Liverpool through to the end of the 2022/23 season it was done at a time before the club had won the Champions League in 2019, won the Premier League in 2020 and had seen its already enormous global brand continue to grow by virtue of their continues success and the appeal that having a star-studded squad with the charismatic Jurgen Klopp at the helm brings.
The bargaining position for Liverpool and owners Fenway Sports Group is as strong as it has ever been, and that will be something likely reflected in a record new deal that moves them away from parity with the likes of Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur, past a flailing Manchester United and keeping on the trail of what Manchester City are able to deliver, which is aided somewhat from a simpatico relationship with the Gulf states where their ownership have considerable influence.
Cryptocurrency, blockchain, media, travel and tourism, fast-moving consumer goods, electronics and financial services firms have all been courted and through conversations with these firms the club will get a better grasp on what the strength of the current market is and, most importantly, their position in it.
Read the full story from Dave Powell, our Business of Football Writer, HERE.
