Liverpool have been speaking to potential new partners over their front of shirt deal from 2023 onwards

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Liverpool have not yet entered into exclusive discussions with any firm over the deal to become their next front of shirt sponsor.

The Reds' current deal with financial services firm Standard Chartered, who have been Liverpool's main shirt partner for the past 12 years, expires at the end of next season and the club have been engaging with potential suitors over who gets the rights from 2023 onwards.

Among those being spoken to are firms from the travel and tourism, media, electronics, cryptocurrency, blockchain, fast-moving consumer goods and finance sectors, while current sponsors Standard Chartered remain engaged in 'live and ongoing' discussions with the club over potentially extending their partnership for another cycle.

The main reason for Liverpool speaking to potential partners from across the business spectrum is to try and see where exactly the market is at and what kind of value it could deliver for a football club at the very summit of the world game and with a global appeal that is matched by very few.

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The current deal is reported to be worth around £40m per season to the Reds, with that deal struck in 2018, pre-pandemic and before Liverpool had truly clicked into gear and delivered a Champions League and Premier League title. Their appeal has only grown since then and as the club chase what would be an unprecedented quadruple there are few sporting teams globally that would have a better hand when arriving at the negotiating table.

Mail Online reported at the weekend that the Reds and Standard Chartered were in talks over a deal that would potentially double what is paid to the club now, taking it to what would be a world record breaking £80m per season. The ECHO understands that while a considerable rise on what has been previously is being targeted by Liverpool, the situation remains as it has been in recent weeks, with the club not yet engaged in exclusive conversations and still speaking to other potential partners in a bid to find out just what could be achieved in the current market.

There are some clues as to where Liverpool might be able to find themselves in terms of what they could possibly command. The rise from 2009 to 2015 was one of £10m per season from Standard Chartered. The rise from 2018 was another £10m. Of the major sponsorship deals that have been concluded during the pandemic and as the world moves out of it, Manchester United's £47m per year deal with TeamViewer replaced the Chevrolet in a deal that was worth around £17m less, although freed United up to secure a deal with a new automotive partner, a lucrative commercial venture for Premier League clubs. But it was also a deal struck over five years in the midst of the pandemic when football was played behind closed doors and even the likes of Barcelona couldn't negotiate a deal longer than one year. The market then isn't like the market now.

A better example of what could be achieved has been seen with Atletico Madrid, who have secured a €200m (£167.8m) five-year deal with cryptocurrency trading platform WhaleFin.

The deal, according to Spanish newspaper El Mundo, is worth €40m (£33.5m) per season to the La Liga giants, an uplift of 135 per cent on the €17m (£14.3m) per year deal that had been in place. If you were to apply the same rise in percentage to a Liverpool deal then you would be looking at £94m per season.

Such numbers are likely unachievable for the Reds or any other club at present. Barcelona, whose fall from grace due to their finances being brutally exposed by the pandemic, have had their negotiating hand weakened and recently signed a four-year deal with Spotify that included front of shirt, women's kits, training kits and stadium naming rights for £235m, around £59m per season.

Manchester City's long-term partnership with Etihad Airways brings in around £67.5m per season, although that includes stadium sponsorship and training ground sponsorship as well as shirt sponsorship. Liverpool aren't considering naming rights being sold for Anfield and they already have a lucrative training ground sponsor in AXA, meaning their deal would be solely for shirt sponsorship.

The arrival of cryptocurrency firms and discussions with them over potential sponsorship has been controversial, although their presence during the pandemic and as normal life has resumed has meant that the sponsorship market has actually had willing partners with capital to spend at a time when traditional partners such as tourism had been suffering enormous losses, and the UK review into gambling sponsorships in football meant that a once lucrative stream is set to come offline in the future.

An £80m per year, shirt only deal seems highly ambitious, although not necessarily unachievable. But it is understood that the position of the club on the global stage compared to the last negotiation means that a rise of more than the £10m seen last time is highly likely, with the £60m to £70m mark seeming more achievable. But it depends who are the major players at the table and how keen they are to make sure that they are the ones who have one of football's most sought after sponsorship spaces. There will be plenty of options for Liverpool, and they will likely finally blow Manchester United out of the water when it comes to the power of their main sponsorship, a title that United have long held in the Premier League.