Manchester City have announced a multi-year, multi-million-pound sponsorship deal with online dating service Tinder.
The deal, announced hours after Pep Guardiola's side lost 3-0 to Liverpool in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-finals, was marked with a giant City and Tinder-branded blimp flying over Manchester.
The dating app will also switch its colors across its social platforms to sky blue to show support for City in the buildup to their clash against Manchester United this weekend.
The partnership involves City's men and women's first teams, as well as sister club New York City FC.
Tom Glick, City Football Group's chief commercial officer, said: "Tinder is a huge global platform which, just like football, is bringing millions of people together every day all around the world.
"Football is all about a community of fans, sharing moments, emotions and passion for the sport they love.
"Together with Tinder, we have a great opportunity to explore how we can combine Tinder's significant appeal and reach with our global audience to create even more relationships in a new, fun and creative way. We believe this will be a perfect match for Tinder and for City."
The partnership with City is Tinder's first major foray into football. Reports last year had claimed that the dating service was engaged in talks to become Manchester United's shirt-sleeve sponsor, but the deal failed to materialize.
David Wyler, Tinder's VP of partnerships, said: "Tinder's global presence and highly engaged user base gives us a unique understanding of what people all over the world are passionate about.
"And they've made it clear that they have a love for sports, particularly football. Football is a sport where anything can happen at any moment.
"We wanted to be true to the game and do something unexpected by surprising the fans and our users with news of our partnership in a fun and creative way."
City will be crowned Premier League champions if they beat United at the Etihad Stadium on April 7.
