FNG Exclusive… On a day when fellow Aussie retail FX broker USGFX announced it is entering administration calling into question its front-of-shirt sponsorship with UK Premier League team Sheffield United, rumors are circulating that IC Markets is set to plunk down a big chunk of change to become a major sponsor of another major European football team, Italy’s Inter Milan.

Italian sports site Tuttosport has reported that IC Markets – one of Australia’s leading Retail FX and CFD brokers by volume – and Inter are set to announce a deal whereby IC Markets will become a sleeve sponsor of Inter, with the IC Markets logo present of the team’s home and away jerseys, but on the sleeve. IC Markets would become Inter’s first sleeve sponsor.

The report didn’t reveal the length of the contemplated deal between IC Markets and Inter, which currently sits in fourth place in Serie A standings, but did state that it would be in the neighborhood of €10 million annually, and would begin next season.

Inter is in the process of making major changes to its sponsorship ranks. The company is ending its near 25-year relationship with Italian tire manufacturer Pirelli which has been Inter’s front-of-shirt sponsor since the 1995-96 season. After failing to increase the size and scope of its current deal with Pirelli which ends after next season, Inter has apparently been looking eastward and is negotiating a new long-term front-of-shirt sponsorship with a number of Asia-based companies. Depending of whom is to be believed, the candidates for Inter front-of-shirt include Chinese real estate giant Evergrande, and Korean mobile phone and telecoms firm Samsung.

Inter’s current deal with Pirelli is for about €12 million a year, while the club is apparently now looking to more than double that in a deal which could go for €25-30 million a year according to various reports. Inter arch rival Juventus brings in a reported €42 million a year from its sponsorship deal with auto manufacturer Jeep.