Football League concerned about disappearing sponsors

A potential sponsorship crisis is developing in Scotland, where deals involving the Scottish Football League (SFL), League Cup and Bell’s Cup are set to expire without any companies lined up as potential replacements. In addition, the country’s television network has announced that it will no longer provide TV coverage of the league, which is comprised of the leagues below the country’s Premiere League.

Without the sponsors, clubs would lose out on approximately GBP 1.5 million in annual prize money. Bells has already announced it will stop sponsoring its cup tournament, which provides GBP 750,000 in annual revenue for the league.
Bell's sponsorship manager, Iain MacDonald, said: “We feel it is now the right time to move on, but we continue to have a great relationship with the SFL and are fully committed to assisting them in whatever way we can as they work to attract a new sponsor from season 2006-07.”

Stephen Morrow, senior lecturer in sports studies at the University of Stirling, said that a failure to replace the sponsorship money would be disastrous. He said: “When your turnover is only in the region of GBP 100,000-150,000 per annum, the prospect of losing 15-25 percent of your income is inevitably a major concern.”

A Scottish TV spokesman said the company decided to end its coverage because of “commercial and editorial reasons.” The move is expected to save the SMG, the parent company of Scottish TV, approximately GBP 500,000 per show.

CIS, a Manchester-based firm that sponsors the League Cup, is at the end of a three-year sponsorship. A spokesman said: “CIS will do nothing regarding the future of the sponsorship at least until after the CIS Cup Final between Celtic and Dunfermline on March 19.”

Scottish Football Association (SFA) commercial director, Bill Wilson, who is negotiating for the SFL, said: “Things are at a very delicate stage on a number of fronts and it would be wrong for me to comment and risk prejudicing commercially sensitive negotiations.”

One sponsor, Tennent’s, has confirmed that it will continue on. The company is the long-term Scottish Cup sponsor and said it will extend its GBP 1 million-a-year deal when it expires next term.

Concerning the other sponsorship issues, David Glen of PricewaterhouseCoopers and author of the annual financial review of Scottish football, said: “This is ... potentially catastrophic for some clubs.” He added: “We could see some grounds being sold off ... and some clubs could even go amateur just to survive.”