FA fear sponsor will call time on Cup deal
THE FA face a battle to keep their Cup sponsors, Emirates, whose three-year deal has one more season to run.
Emirates, who pay £10million a year, are thought to be frustrated that the competition is still not widely referred to as the Emirates FA Cup. But the tournament, whose previous backers had only ‘in association with’ status, is so iconic that it would take decades before any sponsorship became synonymous with it.
For Emirates to withdraw would be a huge blow to the FA, who are already looking for new England team sponsors when Vauxhall’s contract expires after next year’s World Cup in Russia.
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LONDON, who back the England Cricket Board’s international and domestic 50-over competitions, are not expected to renew their sponsorship after the summer. The life insurance giants are unhappy that NatWest, from the same financial sector, were given the England team sponsorship, thus diluting their impact. Another bluechip sponsor, Investec, pulled out five years into a 10-year deal as domestic Test sponsors for the same reason. An ECB spokesman said: ‘Our partnership with Royal London has been very successful. We will discuss our future options nearer the end of the current contract.’ CHANGES in the composition of the Chinese consortium with a majority shareholding in play-off losers Reading would have allowed them into the Premier League next season.
There have been doubts that the Chinese would pass the owners and directors test since that was seen as a reason why they failed in a takeover bid for Hull City last September. But the same consortium leaders, brother and sister property tycoons Dai Yongge (above) and Dai Xiu Li, passed the Football League’s equivalent test before yesterday’s defeat by Huddersfield, with the Premier League saying they had agreed the conditions that would have enabled Reading’s promotion. It is thought that different Chinese business people joining the consortium resulted in them passing the League test.
There remains a mystery at Bournemouth, where the FA have drawn a veil over why their website quickly withdrew a story about the club’s Russian owner, Maxim Demin, being charged with 611 breaches of betting regulations. lSKY SPORTS’ Sir Ian Botham, at his perceptive best, said on air that seven or eight teams could win the eight-nation Champions Trophy. No wonder Botham is the station’s highest paid cricket pundit.