Length of contract: 9 years | Annualised value: US$400,000 | Overall value: US$3.6 million

KarstadtQuelle Versicherungen, the German financial company, has signed a new long-term sponsorship deal with second-tier German soccer side SpVgg Greuther Fürth, perhaps most famous for once having former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger as a member before his emigration to the United States.

The deal will run for nine years from July 2009. By that point the club, currently third in the league table, hopes to have secured promotion to the top flight. That would represent a major coup for the new sponsors, who would have secured premium branding at a knock-down price.

In the club's former guise, SpVgg Fürth, it was national champion on three occasions, but the modern side has struggled to live up to its past performances.