Vodafone are dropping Man Utd and Sponsoring The Champions League starting next season. Vodafone were paying Manure £9 million a year.
LONDON (Reuters) - Vodafone Group Plc said on Wednesday it would start sponsoring the UEFA Champions League as the mobile phone giant ended a four-year shirt sponsorship deal with Manchester United early.
The world's largest mobile phone company by revenue and the Premier League club said in a joint statement that the United shirt deal would be terminated two years early at the end of the 2005/2006 season. The deal is worth about 9 million pounds per year.
"The Manchester United shirt is the most iconic in sport," said the club's commercial director Andy Anson on Wednesday. "The club feels that, in the current market, there is a genuine chance to attract significant additional investment.
He added that initial discussions with a number of "world class potential partners" had been very encouraging and that the club was confident of securing a new deal in the coming months.
Manchester United fans urged Vodafone at its annual investor meeting in July to end a sponsorship deal with U.S. billionaire financier Malcolm Glazer, who seized control of the 127-year-old club for 790 pounds earlier this year.
Glazer has infuriated fans who say he knows nothing about British football and will milk United's profits to pay back vast amounts of debt he used to buy it.
Under the Champions League deal, Vodafone said it would become both an official partner and the official mobile network of the league.
Heard that on the radio earlier, not surprised to be honest that they dropped them as there's been lot's of pressure from United fans on Vodafone.
Vodafone have denied that's why but it must have something to do with it. Not going to help the Glazier's clear their debt either.
