Three bid for England team sponsorship
Three companies are locked in a bidding war to sponsor the England team at the end of the World Cup.
Car manufacturers Ford and Vauxhall and mobile phone operator One- 2-One are battling it out for what is arguably the most high profile sponsorship deal in the UK – which will cost about 15m over four years.
The previous sponsor, motor recovery business Green Flag, paid 4m for its four-year deal with the national team. It was the first company to sponsor the England team when it finalised an agreement in 1994.
Green Flag has been widely criticised for not using the high profile sponsorship to explain the nature of its business.
The Football Association will not publicly acknowledge it is in discussions with any of the parties until negotiations are complete.
The Green Flag deal was brokered by the largest sports agency in the world, Mark McCormack’s International Management Group.
But FA commercial director Philip Carling last year ended the relationship for the sports body’s current crop of deals, which include the England team kit and its new sponsors programme Football Associates – said by the FA to be worth a total of 100m.
