It has been a traumatic time for those at Liverpool Football Club. A messy court battle with the club's previous owners, followed by the worst start to a season in 57 years, has triggered something of a mini-revolt among fans.
In stark contrast, Standard Chartered, a London-based bank heavily rooted in Asia, has not only weathered the recent economic storm but has continued to produce record profits throughout the crisis.
Despite the difference in fortunes, the two organisations have now joined forces in a bid to conquer Asia, where the potential for new business is huge.
Liverpool remains one of the world's biggest clubs - and new sponsor Standard Chartered believes its connection to the famous footballing brand can take its business to new heights. The four-year, $170-million sponsorship deal is set to become the most sophisticated of its kind.
In exclusive, behind-the-scenes access to the men behind the agreement, Today uncovers the part Singapore played in the process, and how the tie-up is all about a drive by both sides to conquer untapped markets in Asia and the rest of the world.
It is a story that exposes the complexities of modern-day sponsorship - and reveals the goals set and glittering prizes on offer for those willing to gamble millions of dollars on the fortunes of an English Premiership club.
Speaking to Today at StanChart's London headquarters, the bank's corporate affairs chief Gavin Laws explained: "It's the first time we have ever done anything of this size, so when we started looking at what we could do for big impact it very quickly came down to English Premier League soccer.
"It has, across all our markets in Asia, Africa and the Middle East, the biggest following bar none. There is nothing anywhere near it."
"There were two properties publicly available at the time when we started to look. One was Manchester United and one was Liverpool. Liverpool had just had a very successful tour of Singapore, where the streets were blocked and the country went mad for a couple of days while they were in town," said Mr Laws, adding that their first meeting in London with Liverpool FC was, in fact, when the team flew back from the Singapore trip last year.
"United have the same sort of affect in Asia but, I guess, we thought Liverpool had more untapped potential in our markets."
WOOING ASIA TOGETHER
Although its world HQ stands in the shadow of St Paul's Cathedral, Standard Chartered has unique ties to Asia, built up over 150 years.
Liverpool, which will use the bank's knowledge of the region to boost its own standing, boasts an annual global TV audience of more than 300 million and can claim to have around 60 million supporters in China alone.
But with Chelsea and Manchester United both stepping up the race to win over more foreign supporters, Liverpool's deal with Standard Chartered once more raises the stakes in the battle for supremacy.
Liverpool wants even greater support in the East, an achievement which will translate into merchandise sales, and the bank wants more high street customers. Together, they believe, the prize is potentially huge.
"One of the things we want to do is show we are different from other banks and Liverpool helps us do that," Mr Laws explained.
"There are so many different advertising hoardings with banks' names on them. Three or four thousand in most Asian capitals alone. If I put another 3,000 up, it would not necessarily bring more customers to Standard Chartered. But if I can find a way to give the people of, say, Singapore access to Liverpool Football Club - whether it be by bringing the team there to play or some of the ex-players to host parties there, or by bringing people from Singapore to Anfield - then we leave a bigger mark in their minds about Standard Chartered being different."
It was a break in sponsorship negotiations with previous sponsor Carlsberg which gave Standard Chartered its foot in the door. Mr Laws and the bank's head of sponsorship Simon Mould pounced on the opportunity.
Liverpool was the first British football team ever to put the name of a company on their shirt when it signed with electronic giants Hitachi in the late 1970s. So, as far as sponsorship and marketing goes, the north-west of England side has always been ahead of the game in using its huge successes in European competition to maximise its global brand.
This is the kind of history and tradition that Standard Chartered is buying into. But gone are the days when a sponsor merely sticks its company logo on the team's shirt. And this latest deal promises to take sports sponsorship on to a level never seen before - with Asian audiences the major target.
Liverpool has even spoken about signing an Asian player in a bid to gain an advantage over its competitors and, come the end of the 2010/11 season, its new sponsors will insist the team travel to three Asian cities for pre-season duties.
WE'VE A LOT TO OFFER: HODGSON
Most football managers lack the eloquence to comment on business matters but current Anfield boss Roy Hodgson is a different proposition.
With more than 30 years experience in management, he has seen it all with stints at AC Milan, the Swiss national team and taking Premiership underdogs Fulham to a European final last season.
Speaking exclusively to Today about the Standard Chartered deal, he said: "Football has always been a major sport in Asia but we are more aware of its importance now than we were 30 years ago.
"Business sees sponsoring a top English club as a good way of getting people to support their organisation and making their employees feel they are working for an important outfit. And, of course, it is becoming more and more expensive to run our clubs and without this type of sponsorship, we would not be able to play or continue to compete at the very highest level.
"So for us, sponsorship is vitally important."
But for the deal to work, he said, it has to be two-way: Both sides must feel they are getting something worthwhile.
"We are offering Standard Chartered our services, our name, our reputation, our tradition, which is actually quite a lot to offer considering we are Liverpool FC ... I think those at Liverpool and the bank have brought about a deal which will be very good for both parties."
With the club's new American owners in place - John Henry of the Boston Red Sox - Anfield is buzzing with excitement again. The buzz is also apparent throughout the Standard Chartered organisation, where dozens of employees all over the world have volunteered to be part of sponsorship think-tanks to dream up marketing ideas involving the bank's new partner.
"In every country we operate, like Hong Kong and Singapore, we have about 14 volunteers working on sponsorship ideas in addition to their day job," said Mr Mould.
HEADLINES AND TROPHIES
This meeting of the football and financial worlds is a marketing man's dream. A tag team of sorts and marriage of convenience, maybe. But a very happy one.
Liverpool provides the grand history, silverware and stable of stars, including Steven Gerrard, Fernando Torres and Glen Johnson. And there are Liverpool legends from the glory years of the 1970s and 80s at the bank's disposal too.
In fact, on the first day of talks between the bank and club, the Liverpool team turned up with Kop legend Kenny Dalglish.
The excitement inside Standard Chartered that day was electric, witnesses say, and it showed that when Liverpool want to turn on the charm they really do have the ability to deliver.
Another old boy, former striker Ian Rush, is an ambassador for the club and will be working hard for the bank over the next four years.
He recently led a Liverpool coaching team to Africa for one of the bank's soccer schools for underprivileged children. The event - part of the bank's community drive - also saw Standard Chartered staff teach Aids awareness classes to the youngsters involved. There will be four more soccer schools over the coming months involving Liverpool staff and three of the four will be staged abroad.
While the club provides the glitz and glamour, Standard Chartered provides the know-how and strategy. Each organisation now has staff in the other's offices around the world, and there is daily contact between Mr Laws and Liverpool's commercial supremo Ian Ayre.
As sponsors, Mr Laws said: "We need Liverpool to be on the front pages and the back pages of the newspapers and at the start and at the finish of the TV news channels. Even the recent crisis at the club gave us a unique opportunity for coverage on the business pages."
Internal research shows that more and more of the bank's 80,000 staff worldwide are watching Liverpool games. For bosses within Standard Chartered that is exciting. But the real prize is Liverpool winning a place in the Champions League final - the most watched sporting event in the world, outstripping Formula 1 - sometime over the next four seasons.
Standard Chartered has pulled off a marketing coup by getting its name on Liverpool's famous red shirts. Now it really wants the team to win trophies. And having won Europe's top football competition a record five times, the bank is hopeful a Champions League final spot is not too much to hope for.
