Manchester United have bought back the sponsorship rights to their training kit from parcel delivery firm DHL, it has been announced.
When United announced they had done a deal with DHL in 2010 worth ?40million over four years, most experts were astonished at the sum as it exceeded all the actual kit deals of all their Premier League rivals outside of the elite group of present and past Champions League qualifiers.
Since then though, United have signed an eye-boggling US$559million (around ?347million) shirt deal with General Motors, who are paying a world-record sum to replace AON as shirt sponsors in 2014.
And the Glazer family have taken the unusual step of buying out DHL, so certain are they of gaining even greater revenue.
"We have successfully negotiated an early buy-out of our training kit agreement with DHL effective 30 June 2013," the club confirmed on Thursday evening.
"DHL will then continue as our global logistics sponsor.
"The significantly increased value of agreements concluded since entering into this agreement, such as our recent US$559million world-record shirt sponsorship with General Motors, leads us to believe that there should be strategic opportunities to further optimise the value of these rights."
