By Cho Jin-seo
Staff Reporter
LG Electronics has denied allegations that it has been trying to use its lucrative sponsorship to get the English Premier League football club Fulham to buy a Korean player for marketing purposes.
The company was rumored to have put a clause in its three-year sponsorship contract with Fulham that the team should have at least one Korean player on its squad. Popular players Lee Chun-soo and Seol Ki-hyeon have been the subjects of the speculation while Fulham has made no comment on the issue.
LG said its sports marketing activities are strictly professional, and it has no reason to push the club into such a backdoor deal.
``Even if we have a right to pick a player, we would prefer having (David) Beckham to Lee Chun-soo,'' said a spokesman at LG's headquarters in Seoul. ``The sponsorship deal is purely a business one. Signing players is solely the club's decision. Even if we can have a say, there is no merit in having Korean players in Fulham for LG's promotion in Britain.''
Last month, LG signed the contract with London-based Fulham to become the second Korean firm to join the football marketing frenzy. Samsung Electronics, another Korean electronics giant, was the first to land in the English Premier League with a mega deal sponsoring another London-based club, Chelsea.
Fulham is owned by Mohamed Al Fayed, the owner of Harrods department store. Fayed and LG have had a close relationship for years.
Football sponsorship often becomes an astronomical affair when popular teams meet wealthy and aggressive sponsors. Samsung is paying London-based Chelsea $20 million per year to have its logo on players' jerseys, while AIG, the American insurer, hands out $28 million to Manchester United annually. LG didn't disclose its payment to Fulham, but the amount is thought to be lower than Samsung's.
Sometimes patron firms urge clubs either overtly or covertly to sign certain players to use them as a marketing tool.
Daewoo Group sponsored Italy's Perugia in the early 2000s and it was linked with the club's purchase of Korean striker Ahn Jung-hwan from the Daewoo Royals in the South Korean league. Several Japanese and Chinese players in Europe are also known to have benefited from similar deals.
LG said that such a thing is not a consideration in its partnership with Fulham.
``We won't oppose if Fulham chooses a Korean player. But we don't think it will help our sales in Korea. And there could be a backlash if he fails to play well in England.''