Bank of America to sponsor Liverpool

Liverpool co-owner Tom Hicks has appointed Ian Ayre as the club's new commercial director and likely to be a candidate for Liverpool's chief executive as reported by media in UK. Ayre, 45th has revealed new sponsorship plans and a desire to push the club higher in football's rich list. And with Rick Parry announcing he will be quitting as chief executive this summer after 12 years in the job, Ayre is already being touted for the job along with former Football Association chief executive Brian Barwick.

Now Ayre has confirmed a new sponsorship with the Bank of America, the prospect of three other sponsorship deals soon and a summer tour to the Far East for Rafael Benitez's team. Liverpool have extended their agreement with the BoA for a further four years, a deal worth £5 million.

BoA is the parent company of Chester-based credit card firm MBNA who supply Liverpool's credit card for supporters, and they announced major redundancies in December for their worldwide operation. Ayre clearly aims to exploit the worldwide market. According to a Deloitte report released last month, Liverpool are the seventh-richest club in the world with revenues of over £200 million. Liverpool had risen one place from the year before and Ayre says sponsorship gains made in the past 12 months mean he "would be shocked if we did not climb further".

Prior to joining Liverpool, Ayre had been chief executive of Total Sports Asia, who advised companies on sports and entertainment campaigns in Asia.

Before that he was managing director of Virgin/NTL subsidiary Premium TV, having joined from Huddersfield Town, where he had been chief executive and chairman for three years.

LF