Southampton: LD Sports announced as new Saints shirt sponsor

Southampton have announced that Chinese sports content, marketing and entertainment company LD Sports is to become the club’s main shirt sponsor from next season.

The platform – which is not a registered company yet – is said to be providing the biggest ever sponsorship deal to Saints in their history.

This move sees the new partnership take the main sponsorship role, whilst former club sponsors Virgin Media remain in an adapted three-year deal with the club.

The announcement of this new direction for the club came on Monday but caused some bemusement for Saints fans.

Some concerns were raised at the fact that the company is yet to start trading despite reportedly providing the largest financial benefits seen from a sponsor at St Mary’s.

Saints Commercial Director David Thomas said in an official statement:

"“We are delighted LD Sports has chosen a partnership with Southampton Football Club as a platform to help launch their brand this summer. It’s an exciting challenge, and we are looking forward to using our growing credentials and awareness in China, as well as our content and digital marketing expertise, to help the brand achieve its business objectives over the next three years.”"

The LD Sports name does sound similar to the name of the company that club owner Gao Jisheng had with Lander Sports.

However, a report from the Daily Echo’s Adam Leitch states that the two are not linked in any way despite the Chinese connection.

To be competitive in the Premier League these days it is vital that Saints continue to get strong financial backing that helps them to fight amongst fellow top-flight clubs.

The same Daily Echo report says that opportunities to work with gambling companies did arise for Saints but that they felt it was morally wrong to have them as the main club sponsors.

An influx of betting into football has seen a large percentage of teams in gambling partnerships and it remains to be seen what services LD Sports will exactly be providing.

Whilst some concerns have been raised by fans about Saints trying to break into the Chinese market, there is no doubting the potential that the country provides.

With football growing as a sport there, commercial opportunities will arise and more actions may be taken like the upcoming game that the first-team are due to play in Macau this summer.