Nationwide to end England sponsorship deal.

[Matt]

Building society Nationwide says it is likely to end its sponsorship of the England football team.

Nationwide had tabled a £20m offer to extend the partnership for another four years, but this had been turned down by the FA.

Now, the building society has said that sponsorship, which ends at the end of July, was "unlikely to be renewed".

Sponsorship deals with the Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland squads are also expected to come to an end.

Future

England were beaten in the first knock-out stage of the World Cup in South Africa with a 4-1 defeat to Germany.

When it turned down the Nationwide offer made 12 months ago, the FA were said to be reasonably confident of England making more of an impact in the World Cup and held out in the hope of attracting a more lucrative offer.

But a number of Nationwide's 15 million members were unsure whether a large amount of money should be put into a sponsorship contract at a time of economic uncertainty.

Sponsorship included branding on all training kit and tickets, backdrops during press conferences and signs at home games and training sessions.

"Nationwide's sponsorship of the England team has been extremely successful over 11 seasons and has significantly raised the profile of our organisation," a Nationwide spokesman said.

"Our current sponsorship deal ends at the end of July and it is unlikely to be renewed."

The next England game is a friendly against Hungary at Wembley on 11 August.

Nationwide also has deals with the Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland teams, which are also due to expire at the end of July. They are also unlikely to be renewed.

[AmericanScott]

Facebook in bid to sponsor England

[The Doctor]

Facebook in bid to sponsor England

£20 mill! Where does facebook make money to be able to sponsor a team for that much?

[Mike the Metal Ed]

£20 mill! Where does facebook make money to be able to sponsor a team for that much?

Lucrative market in selling the details of millions of people to advertisers...

[Alexikokopops]

£20 mill! Where does facebook make money to be able to sponsor a team for that much?

Given there are 400 million users, and every one gets adverts every time they click on a new page, I'd wager there's a lot of income from that. Apparently revenue was nearly $800million last year.

[poopbutt]

use adblocker...no shitty ads

[Anish]

Who'd want to sponsor the England team now? The team and the management are a shambles and if I was a corporate sponsor I'd steer well clear to avoid embarrassment.

[Webbo]

The Football Association today proudly unveiled Total, fcuk and UPS as the new sponsors of the England football team. ‘The combination of these three corporate giants perfectly captures the ethos of the England side,’ said an FA spokesman. ‘After all, they had nothing in the tank when it counted, and they’ve proved themselves to be a bunch of expensive posers who always fail to deliver.’

The announcement followed the news that Nationwide building society would be ending its sponsorship of the national side after the FA rejected its pre-World Cup offer of a new £20m deal. ‘Not so fcuking cocky now, are you?’ said Nationwide in a prepared statement yesterday, before respectfully suggesting that the FA ‘shoved its sponsorship deal right up it’s a@se’. Pundits noted that if the FA followed Nationwide’s advice, it would be the second time in a fortnight that England had been laid wide open at the back.

The new shirts come in a range of bright ‘easy to spot’ colours after claims from England players that the old kit was painted in ‘magic invisible ink’ which made it impossible to pick out an easy and obvious pass to a team mate. The new shirts are also made of a super lightweight material, unlike the old tops which were apparently made of extra-heavy chain mail which left the Premiership stars lumbering around looking exhausted and unfit.

However, one criticism has been made of the design of the new England kit with claims that the neck hole was inexplicably too small for the heads of the Premiership stars. Players say this will make it very hard to pull the shirt off during an over-exuberant goal celebration, but a spokesman for the manufacturers said ’we don’t envisage this being a problem.’