Premier League champions Arsenal announced a sponsorship deal with Emirates airline worth a potential 100 million pounds ($178.2 million) on Tuesday, the biggest in English football history.

The London club's new 60,000-seat stadium, due to open in 2006, will be known as the Emirates Stadium and the Dubai-based airline will also sponsor the team's shirts for eight years starting from 2006.

"This is a historic day in the life of Arsenal football club," chairman Peter Hill-Wood told a news conference at Arsenal's long-time home Highbury.

"Highbury holds very special memories for us but it simply could not meet the huge demands from our supporters."

Arsenal have won the Premier League title twice in the last three seasons, challenging the supremacy of Manchester United, champions in eight of the last 12 seasons.

Hill-Wood believes the Emirates sponsorship can only improve Arsenal on and off the pitch.

"The new deal is vitally important to us and we might even overtake them (United)."

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said the size of the sponsorship was a boost for confidence at the club.

"It shows a big trust in the way the club is run," Wenger said. "We don't always realise how popular Arsenal are around the world and this gives us great confidence."

NEW CONTRACT

Wenger indicated he will sign a new contract soon, saying: "I have said many times that I am committed to the future of this club.

"It is a question of days until the announcement of the extension of my contract but I am not worried about it at all."

Wenger has managed the London club since 1996 and has won the League and FA Cup double twice. He guided them to unbeaten success in the Premier League last season and the FA Cup the year before.

Managing director Keith Edelman would not be drawn on how much of the sponsorship would be channelled into improving a team which are unbeaten in a record 48 league games stretching back to May 2003.

"There will be more money flowing back to the football club and some of that will be available for improving the squad," he said.

The deal is for a basic 90 million pounds but that could rise to 100 million with bonuses built into the deal, Arsenal said.

The club will receive the money in instalments, beginning with a nine-million pound payment in April next year.

Emirates sponsor Arsenal's closest challengers Chelsea, who are two points behind their London rivals. That deal with the Stamford Bridge club ends at the end of the current season.