By David Gold
November 18 – Clydesdale Bank has elected to end its sponsorship of the Scottish Premier League (SPL) when its current deal expires at the end of the 2012-2013 season.
Clydesdale had been the sponsor of the league since 2007, and their retail director Steve Reid said: “It has been a privilege to support Scottish football over what will be a six-year period.
“As well as supporting our national sport, we entered into the sponsorship to raise awareness of our brand and it is fair to say we will have achieved more than we could have hoped for.
“However, we believe that at the end of our current deal in 2013 the time will be right to hand the partnership over and, in making the announcement now, we are giving the SPL 18 months in which to find the league’s next sponsor.”
SPL chief executive Neil Doncaster added: “The SPL and Clydesdale Bank have enjoyed an extremely successful partnership and the relationship has gone from strength to strength over the years.
“I would like to thank the Clydesdale Bank for their support and commitment to Scottish football and look forward to working alongside the Clydesdale Bank to ensure the final 18 months of the partnership continues that great success.
“Work also now begins on seeking a new title sponsor for the foremost sporting competition in Scotland from season 2013/14.
“The Scottish Premier League has consistently demonstrated that it provides terrific value to its sponsors.”
The decision to end the sponsorship of the SPL comes at a particularly difficult point for the league.
For the second successive month Heart of Midlothian, who are more than £30 million (€35 million/$47 million) in debt, failed to pay their players on time, whilst champions Glasgow Rangers have also suffered in recent times.
They are currently sweating over the outcome of a case with HM Revenue & Customs which could see the club landed with a tax bill of up to £30 million (€35 million/$47 million).
Some 600,000 fans have stopped going to matches in the SPL in the last five years, and to top it off only Glasow Celtic are still in European competitions this season after the rest of the Scottish teams participating in those competitions were knocked out in qualifiers.
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