Indian giant linked with United sponsorship

THE Indian conglomerate which owns Tetley tea, steel maker Corus, car makers Jaguar and Land Rover and North West chemicals firm Brunner Mond was today hevaily linked with becoming Manchester United’s next sponsor.

Tata Group is the latest major corporate name to be linked with the European and Premiership champions, which is on the look-out for a new sponsor from 2010 as a result for the crisis that has engulfed current sponsor AIG, which has been rescued by the US government with a £125bn bail-out package.

There is growing poilitical pressure in the US for the final  £14m installment of the £56m AIG deal to be withheld, duer to the effective nationalistion of the insurer.

Democrat congressman Ed Pastor said: “I think that AIG should drop the sponsorship deal with Manchester United.AIG is no longer an independent private company. They belong to the US government.”

Other big names linked with the sponsorship have included Saudi Telecom.

A Tata spokesman said the company was looking at its sponsorship options, but nothing had been finalised.