IT USED to be on the pitch that football’s most bitter battles took place.

Then it was in the transfer market.

Now, the game is preparing for the latest great arms race, which will be fought out in clubs’ commercial departments.

Liverpool’s announcement last month that they had agreed a record-breaking deal with US sportswear giants Warrior Sports to manufacture the club’s kit for the next six years, although not a surprise (the deal had been mooted for some time) will have caused quite a ripple across the Premier League.

Worth a guaranteed £25m per year, the Warrior deal is the largest of its kind in English football history. It also leaves Liverpool free to generate further revenue through the sale of official club merchandise; the rights to which, unlike with their previous deal with adidas, are now owned exclusively by the club.

Add that to another record-breaker, the shirt sponsorship deal signed with Standard Chartered bank in 2010, which will net the club around £20m per year, and it is easy to see why Reds managing director Ian Ayre is so confident heading into FFP’s three-year ‘trimming down’ phase.

Liverpool’s last recorded turnover was £184m, though the club are acutely aware that the £43m generated from matchday revenue is dwarfed in comparison with the likes of Arsenal and Manchester United, who brought in £94m and £100m respectively.

“It is part of our overall challenge,” says Ayre. We have to generate as much revenue as possible to compete at the highest level.

“Particularly with the introduction of Financial Fair Play, these are landmark deals. They feed the coffers that will help us to be a sustainable football club, and that is something we will always be focused on.”