The Football Association is about to sign a new sponsorship deal with Vauxhall and it is thought likely to be around the £5m figure it earned from its former deal with Nationwide. Two years ago the FA thought that with Fabio Capello’s team progressing smoothly to World Cup qualification it could command a premium on its rights. It therefore rejected an offer from Nationwide to extend its deal. Then came the catastrophic World Cup performance in South Africa.
The Football Association is about to sign a new sponsorship deal with Vauxhall and it is thought likely to be around the £5m figure it earned from its former deal with Nationwide. Two years ago the FA thought that with Fabio Capello’s team progressing smoothly to World Cup qualification it could command a premium on its rights. It therefore rejected an offer from Nationwide to extend its deal. Then came the catastrophic World Cup performance in South Africa.
Now it faces a rival for sports sponsorship in the shape of England’s newly successful cricket team, fresh from its 3-1 victory over Australia. The England and Wales Cricket Board will next week open up to auction the rights to English text cricket and are confident of an equivalent £5m deal, up to 25 per cent more than the existing Npower deal. However, it should be recalled that 2012 is the first year of the new rights when cricket will be up against football’s European Championship and the Olympics.
In many respects cricket has a better image than football. Although the players can expect to see their off-pitch earnings increase by up to a third after their Ashes victory, they do not earn the astronomical sums paid to some footballers which are the subject of critcism by fans. They also seem to function more effectively as a national team. While there are intense rivalries in county cricket, they do not match those between clubs in football.
Cricket also conforms to a cosy ‘Middle England’ image (remember the speeches of John Major?) whereas one suspects that some of the objections to football is that it offers an avenue to riches for those from poor and ethnic minority backgrounds. Many cricketers come from solid middle class backgrounds.
However, many think that another even more emphatically middle class game, rugby union, is making greater strides in attracting sponsors than football, despite financial pressures on clubs. There is a lot of competition for sports sponsorship, but football has one great advantage: it can offer a global brand that penetrates all markets with the possible exception of North America and it is gaining ground there.