Carlsberg has sponsored Liverpool for nearly 20 years, making it the longest-standing shirt sponsorship deal in the Premiership, but the Danish brewer must proceed with caution.
Anfield, home to Liverpool since the club's foundation in 1892, is considered sacrosanct by the club's fans, who have a strong sense of history and tradition.
Football fans are among the most loyal customers in the world, but also the most passionate. Brands involved in the game have to tread carefully.
'It is vital that Carlsberg works with the fans,' warns Tim Crow, chief executive of Synergy, a sponsorship agency. 'Anfield is sacred. It's dangerous territory for anybody, but if anyone can do it, it's Carlsberg.'
Crow cites the heritage the brand has built up in relation to the club. 'It would be in pole position,' he adds.
The biggest stadium naming-rights deal in the Premiership is the Emirates Stadium (Arsenal FC). The club's tie-up with the airline also covers sponsorship of Arsenal's shirts. It builds on Emirates' previous sponsor-ship of Chelsea and has boosted its profile.
A dual sponsorship such as this can have a significant impact, according to Gareth Moore, international sales director at Sport+Markt. 'If you have naming-rights and shirt sponsorship, the effect can be enormous,' he says.
'Liverpool's international fan base, coupled with the tradition and history that it has developed with Anfield over the years, would be a coup for any brand.'
However, Carlsberg already has high brand awareness in the UK, which raises the question as to whether it needs a naming-rights deal. Nonetheless, Crow identifies other reasons in favour of the potential deal. 'It would strengthen its relationship with Liverpool,' he says. 'Carlsberg might also feel uncomfortable sponsoring
the team's shirts, but having another brand sponsor the stadium.'
Stadium naming-rights are becoming more prevalent in the UK. Fellow Premiership clubs Everton and Tottenham Hotspur are both hoping to attract naming-rights partners as they move stadiums.
If Carlsberg is to take up the naming-rights deal at Liverpool's new stadium, it would be well-advised to do so from the outset, so that the name is used by commentators and fans as a matter of course.
The stadium's name would also require careful thought. When O2 began sponsoring the Millennium Dome in 2005, it considered names such as 'The O2 Bubble' and 'The O2 Dome' before settling simply on 'The O2'.
The name Carlsberg An-field, for example, would almost certainly be referred to solely as Anfield, just as fans of Southampton FC refer to the Friends Provident St Mary's Stadium simply as 'St Mary's'.
Whether or not a deal materialises, Carlsberg's statement of intent is a testament to the appetite that still exists in the market for big sponsorship deals. It is, moreover, a timely boost for the sports marketing community as a whole.
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