Vauxhall to quit, but United cool over GM
VAUXHALL’s decision yesterday to withdraw from their team sponsorship of all Home Nations sides after the 2018 World Cup could have farreaching repercussions.
Renewing the £7million-a-year deal, of which around £5m was allocated to England, has been under discussion by Vauxhall management for some months with the feeling being that the endorsement had run its course after seven years.
Vauxhall’s parent company is American giant General Motors, who are also said to have an influence on ending the contract due to a change of sponsorship direction. And that has put the future of GM’s £53m-a-year shirt sponsorship with Manchester United, through its Chevrolet range which runs until 2021, under the microscope.
An Old Trafford spokesman said they were very relaxed about the Chevrolet agreement, which had always been focused on car sales in Asia.
The FA will want a blue-chip replacement for Vauxhall. ‘The opportunity to partner with the national team in the largest sport in the world can be transformative,’ said FA commercial director Mark Bullingham.
wouldn’t have imagined former England manager Roy Hodgson had presided over two of the national team’s most woeful tournament performances, in Brazil and France, listening to the two former FA bosses most responsible for appointing him. Former chairman David Bernstein and ex-general secretary Alex Horne, speaking at an event for property investors, were full of self-praise for their own FA achievements which included hiring huge failure Hodgson. FIFA president Gianni Infantino (right), who sometimes gives the impression he’s making up the rules on the hoof, has made a surprising appointment in Belgian steve Martens as FIFA technical director — especially as Dutch football legend Marco van Basten is already in Zurich working as chief officer for technical development.
Martens had a spell as performance director of the Lawn Tennis Association, though he commuted from Belgium every week. Then his time as CEO of the Belgian FA is chiefly remembered for the finances going belly-up. A FIFA spokeswoman couldn’t say where or if the job was advertised calling it a ‘standard recruitment procedure’.
has emerged that Ferran Soriano, Spanish chief executive of Manchester City, is the most vocal agitator among the Big Six clubs whom PL executive chairman Richard Scudamore is trying to keep in the collective tent. The Champions League reform guaranteeing England four places has quietened the rebellious mood among the Big Six. But Serrano is still fighting for the PL’s international TV rights to be divided on a sliding scale, dominated by viewer interest rather than equally among the 20 clubs. The City chief is reportedly finding it difficult to get his head around the collective model that has been the bedrock of PL success.