The FA has suffered a significant financial blow after E.ON confirmed it would not be renewing their sponsorship of the FA Cup when their deal when expires next May.
The withdrawal of the energy suppliers, whose four year contract was worth £9 million a year, comes at the start of a World Cup year and with the FA still to fill the £70m void in their FA Cup TV rights after the collapse of Setanta in June.
The demise of Setanta — and the on-going uncertainty over TV coverage of the FA Cup this season — appear to have been the final straw for Eon, who have blamed the decision on changes to its UK sponsorship strategy.
“The FA can confirm that E.ON’s sponsorship of the FA Cup will come to a close at the end of the current 2009-10 season,” an FA statement read.
“The FA would like to thank E.ON for its investment into and support of the competition to date. We now look forward to taking the FA Cup sponsorship opportunity to the open market for the 2010-14 period.”
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The FA are confident that the market value of the competition remains high and that they will attract an equal or bigger deal for the next four-year cycle.