TV deals were l air max rea ost and sponsorship

Scandal appears no bar for Juventus's partners

MILAN, June 14 (Reuters) Juventus's major partners seem happy to support the nation's premier club even if it suffered the humiliation of relegation from Serie A as a result of a match fixing scandal.

Relegation could hit Juventus' revenues hard if lucrative TV deals were l air max rea ost and sponsorship withdrawn, analysts said.

''The main revenue driver for Juventus is television rights.

If they lost those it would be a massive hit,'' said Harry Philp, managing director of Hermes Sports Partners, a corporate advisory firm for the sports industry.

If Juventus was relegated, ''people will still watch on television but you're not going to get the same viewing levels as you would for Juventus against Lazio'', he added.

Giorgio Brenna, chairman and chief executive for Italy of advertising firm Leo Burnett, agreed.

''The economic impact if they play in Serie B could be huge,'' Brenna said. ''If you took away the television rights, the lack of income from playing in European leagues and sponsorship, it's over 125.8 million dollar a year.'' Juventus made 49 per cent of its revenues of 134.2 million euros from television rights in the first half of the 2005/06 year, with sponsorship accounting for about 20 per cent.

But there are signs that Juventus, Italian champions 29 times, could find life in Serie B not as difficult as investors may have feared.

'THE REAL FAN' Mediaset has a broadcasting deal worth over 218 million euros with Juventus for two seasons from 2007/08 and has said the club's huge fan base meant it would remain a big player whatever division it played in.

Sky, which has satellite rights with Juventus worth at least 94.5 million euros for next season, said it was waiting to see how things developed before taking a decision.

Sponsors have indicated there might not be a drastic drop in revenue for a Serie B Juventus.

''We believe we will continue to work with Juventus,'' said Massimo Giunco, spokesman for Nike E air max 95 dam urope , which has a 12 year, 187 million euro deal with the Turin based team for products carrying its trademark tic which started in 2003.

Germany's Siemens , which is in talks over a contract to provide security and telecommunications at the Delle Alpi stadium which Juventus plans to renovate, said it was discussing sponsorship with the club.

Juventus' sole official sponsor, Libyan state oil firm Tamoil, declined to comment on what would happen if the club were relegated.

Sponsors get huge publicity through Juventus, which has a third of the Italian market in its 14 million domestic fans, and 174 million potential supporters worldwide.