Nationwide end England sponsorship
Published 20:20 20/07/10 By Martin Lipton
The Football Association's longest-standing sponsors turned their backs on England last night to end an 11-year attachment to the Three Lions.
Nationwide ended their involvement with the England set-up after refusing to be bounced into upping their £20million sponsorship deal.
The company, which has been principal England team sponsor for seven years between 1999 and this year, had wanted to extend its involvement with England for a further four seasons but only at the same value of £5m per year.
But FA chiefs, who still believe they can double the sponsorship income despite England's World Cup flop, declined to listen and after a six-month impasse Nationwide called time.
Nationwide sponsorship chief Chris Hull said: "I can confirm that Nationwide Building Society will not be renewing its England team sponsorship with The Football Association after the current agreement expires at the end of July 2010."
The FA are understood to have been in discussion with a number of potential replacements, including the telecommunications companies O2, Orange and Blackberry, although Wembley chiefs would be embarrassed if they were unable to announce a replacement before England's season-opening friendly with Hungary on August 11.
