Sept. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Manchester United's shirts read AIG. They might as well say U.S.A.

The U.S. government's $85 billion takeover of American International Group Inc. gave it control of United's shirt sponsorship, one of the most visible in sports after the team won two of soccer's biggest club championships last season.

The English Premier League is becoming a scoreboard for the global credit crisis. Newcastle players wear the logo of Northern Rock Plc, a U.K. mortgage-lender that was nationalized in February; West Ham lost XL Leisure Group Plc last week when the tour operator grounded all its flights because it ran out of money; and West Bromwich Albion was unable to land a shirt sponsor after being promoted from the second-tier championship.

``Even football clubs are not immune from the credit crunch,'' said Nigel Currie, director of sports marketing at Guildford, England-based Brand-Rapport. ``They are absolutely in the same boat as everybody else.''

Typically, a shirt deal is a club's largest single source of sponsorship revenue. AIG, which struck the deal with the U.S. government two days ago, is in the second year of a four-year agreement with United worth 56.5 million pounds ($102.9 million).

This season, however, shirt sponsorship revenue in England's top soccer league fell to 67 million pounds from around 75 million a year earlier, Currie said. It was the first time it has fallen, he said.

Sponsor-Free Match

When West Brom played West Ham last week, it was the first time in the Premier League's 16-year history that a match was played with both teams sporting jerseys without a sponsor's name. Since Crawley, England-based XL Leisure collapsed only a day before the game, West Ham played with patches over the logo.

Sometimes not having a sponsor is better, Currie said. When newspapers needed to illustrate Northern Rock's difficulties after it became the victim of the first run on a British bank in more than a century, they turned to sports.

``You look in the business pages and they will inevitably use a picture of Michael Owen with a Newcastle shirt on,'' Currie said. ``It portrays an image of not being successful.''

The Premier League generates revenue of more than 1.5 billion pounds and sponsorship income accounts for a fraction of that. United, for example, collected 49.3 million pounds in television revenue last year, and earned another 42.9 million euros ($61.3 million) from European soccer's governing body by winning the Champions League last season.

Contingency Plans

United, owned by the American Glazer family, won't disclose its contingency plans for a possible loss of principal sponsor AIG, according to a representative for the Glazers. ``It's business as usual,'' he said.

The club, which has won three European titles and the English league 17 times, wouldn't have trouble finding a new one, said Stefan Szymanski, a professor of sports business at Cass Business School in London.

``There would be a queue of sponsors lining up for United,'' Szymanski said.

Manchester United's roster includes England national team striker Wayne Rooney, Argentina's Carlos Tevez and two-time English league player of the year Cristiano Ronaldo. The club won the Premier League title last season as well as the Champions League, the most prestigious in club soccer.

West Brom said this week it is in talks with several ``interested parties'' over securing a sponsor to replace Deutsch Telecom AG's T-Mobile. It's unlikely to receive more than 1 million pounds, said Brand-Rapport's Currie, who worked on Manchester United's previous shirt sponsorship deal with Vodafone Group Plc.

Other Deals

Jacques Bungert, president of Young & Rubicam Brands, which arranges sports sponsorship deals in Europe, said the plight of West Brom and West Ham may have implications for other mid- ranking Premier League teams.

``The fact the team doesn't have a sponsor is very frightening for the others, wondering if they will go in the same direction,'' Bungert said.

West Ham said today that it isn't planning to announce a new sponsor before its next league game against Newcastle this weekend.

The British Broadcasting Corp. reported the East London team had received 2.5 million pounds from a 7.5 million-pound, three- year deal it had signed with XL.

One English team got around the whole issue. Birmingham's Aston Villa, owned by U.S. billionaire Randy Lerner, snubbed corporate sponsorship offers and instead offered the team's claret and blue shirt to Acorns, a local hospice for children.

``As a statement it's a pretty good way of meeting your corporate social responsibility obligations and burnishing your image in the local community,'' Currie said.

To contact the reporters on this story: Tariq Panja in London at tpanja@bloomberg.net;

Last Updated: September 18, 2008 04:29 EDT