• New ground delayed by 'global market conditions'
• 'Deal is a huge step forward financially' says Christian Purslow
The Liverpool managing director, Christian Purslow, believes the biggest sponsorship deal in the club's history can get their new stadium project back on track.
The Merseysiders have struck a four-year sponsorship with Standard Chartered Bank, who will become their main sponsor from July next year until the end of the 2013-14 season, replacing Carlsberg.
The deal is reportedly worth £80m to Liverpool and according to Purslow, a large chunk of that revenue will go towards getting the club's long-standing plans for a new stadium back on track.
Liverpool City Council last year granted planning permission to allow the club to build a 60,000-seat stadium in Stanley Park, however progress has been delayed, with Anfield officials citing "global market conditions" as the cause.
"The overall financial health of our football club is a key ingredient of being able to get the stadium project back up and running," said Purslow. "This is a huge step forward for the club financially and that can only be helpful to create the conditions in which we can restart the stadium project.
"This partnership brings together two highly successful organisations with a really strong cultural and strategic fit. The sponsorship opportunity attracted a huge level of interest from a wide array of globally recognised brands and in Standard Chartered we believe we have the ideal partner to move forward and help develop our global ambitions for the club.
"It is a real sign of the progress we have made at Liverpool that we have been able to secure the largest ever commercial deal in our history."
Purslow said that Standard Chartered's global status reflected Liverpool's ambition to be the best football club in the world.
"They operate in a number of markets around the world where we have a vast and growing fanbase," he added. "They have 1,400 branches in Asia, the Middle East and Africa, 14 million customers and over 70,000 employees. These branches will effectively be a shop window for Liverpool football club around the world.
"On the park, it is clear that we want to be the most successful football club in the world. To do that I believe that there is a pretty important link to how we perform off the park."
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