By Andrew Warshaw
September 11 – Wembley Stadium is in advanced discussions with several companies over a possible naming-rights deal, according to the BBC.
Any agreement would retain the name Wembley (pictured) with a sponsor’s name alongside it, the corporation said.
Other reports directly contradicted the BBC, however, saying there was no chance of such an agreement to help maximise revenues.
At English club level, naming rights has become an increasingly popular way of increasing revenue, especially as UEFA’s Financial Fair Play rules start to bite – for example, Arsenal has a deal with the Emirates airline while fellow Premier League outfit Stoke City’s ground is named after the Britannia Co-operative Bank.
Although the European football governing body’s rules do not affect national teams the English Football Association is still repaying the debt it took on to revamp Wembley, reopened five years ago at a cost of £757 million ($1.2 billion/€948 million).
Talks are reportedly set to establish various ways of paying off Wembley’s rebuilding costs.
Most recently Wembley staged both the men’s and women’s Olympic football finals and plays host to Ukraine in a FIFA 2014 World Cup qualifier tomorrow.
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