July 6 – England’s disastrous World Cup campaign appears to have cost the Football Association another multi-million pound sponsor after Nationwide revealed that it will not renew its current deal when it expires at the end of this month.
The building society had been prepared to agree another four-year deal before South Africa at the cost of £20 million ($30 million) but the FA wanted to wait until the World Cup in the hope that they would double that amount if the team was successful.
Under the terms of the deal, Nationwide had branding rights on England’s kit and media promotions as well as access to players for personal appearances on television advertising.
They had launched a major television advertising linked to its sponsorship of England to coincide with the World Cup starring “Little Britain” stars Matt Lucas and David Walliams and also featuring manager Fabio Capello and stars like John Terry, David James and Peter Crouch.
A spokesman for Nationwide said: ”Nationwide’s sponsorship of the England team has been extremely successful over 11 seasons and has significantly raised the profile of our organisation.
“Our current sponsorship deal ends at the end of July and it is unlikely to be renewed.”
The decision will affect far more than just England’s under-performing senior team as the deal also included the under-21 team, all the women’s teams, the disabled teams and all the youth teams.
It is the third major sponsorship deal that the FA have lost this year.
Earlier this year, before England left for the World Cup, National Express announced that they would not be renewing their deal E.ON said that it would be dropping it £7.5 million ($11.3 million) sponsorship deal for the FA Cup.
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May 2010: Football Association lose another multi-million pound sponsor