Arsenal and Man City have gone head to head in the last two Premier League title races, with Pep Guardiola’s side coming out on top in both 2022-23 and 2023-24.
City’s success on the pitch has yielded huge financial benefits, with their annual income from sponsorship and merchandise sales of £341m just shy of twice Arsenal’s commercial revenue of £173m.
Mikel Arteta, Manager of Arsenal, interacts with Pep Guardiola, Manager of Manchester City, prior to the Premier League match between Manchester Ci...
Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images
The biggest individual commercial revenue driver for City is their monster deal with Etihad.
That arrangement – which encompasses front-of-shirt and naming rights for their stadium and training complex – is worth £67.5m per year.
Arsenal’s equivalent deal with Emirates, one of the longest running commercial partnerships in football, is worth £50m per season.
Both Emirates and Etihad are both from the United Arab Emirates, whose ultimate owners are sovereign wealth funds from Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
They share an intense rivalry as a result – and that has had commercial ramifications in football.
Arsenal allies renew commercial deal disliked by Man City
City may have been the dominant force in recent years, but they still have some way to go before they eclipse Arsenal’s domestic silverware record.
The Gunners have won 13 league titles and 14 FA Cups, compared to City’s 10 and seven.
City’s most recent triumph in the FA Cup came in 2022-23, when they completed the historic treble.
That was the second time they have won the world’s oldest cup competition since 2015, when the FA Cup struck a principle sponsorship deal with Emirates.
This deal has been the cause of some controversy involving City, who refuse to wear the Emirates FA Cup badge on their shirts when competing in the competition because the company is a direct rival of Etihad.
They are not alone in this stance – Rangers did the same when Cinch, a rival of the club’s sponsor Park’s Motors, secured the naming rights for the SPFL, for example.
Now, this saga looks set to continue.
The FA announced today (1 August) that they had renewed their deal with Emirates for another four years.
The partnership is believed to be worth £10m per year, taking the total value of the extension to £40m.
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The chasm between Man City and Arsenal in terms of commercial income may start to shrink thanks to the Gunners return to the Champions League.
The increased exposure that playing on Tuesday nights in front of a huge non-domestic audience will allow them to renegotiate with sponsors and charge higher prices for hospitality suites.
However, the gap is a long, long way from being eliminated.
City’s commercial department – and the wider sponsorship strategists at City Football Group – are among the most respected operators in the industry.
They have monetised the City brand arguably better than any other club and have diversified their income through content and other IP leverage.
Arsenal meanwhile are making headway with merchandise, branching out into streetwear through their impressive deal with Adidas.
However, Arsenal have one of the least diversified sponsorship portfolio’s in the Premier League – and this will need to change if they are to compete with the likes of City financially.
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