Monumental gamble or dream deal?
Vauxhall’s announcement to sponsor the England football team in a deal though to be worth GBP100m across 3.5 years is a bold move – but one riddled with risk too.
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Football in England is box office news but often takes the form of highly-strung football players tumbling out of nightclubs, while a whole plethora of scandal never seems to be far away.
That has translated at times to the national team too, while its players hardly covered themselves with glory at last summer’s World Cup in South Africa, being soundly booted out of the competition 4-1 by arch-rivals Germany.
That, coupled with the shenanigans of the recent vote by FIFA to award the 2018 World Cup to Russia – despite the powerful triumvirate of David Beckham, David Cameron and heir to the throne, Prince William – and you wonder why Vauxhall would touch England football with a bargepole.
Well, the on-going soap opera that is the England team certainly doesn’t appear to have deterred Vauxhall, although its managing director Duncan Aldred laced his comments with caveats when he spoke to just-auto yesterday (11 January).
“You support your team through thick and thin,” he said. “You can’t choose your country – you support it through good and bad.
“We are a British manufacturer – we have been looking at opportunities for the last 12 months – it appeared to me the perfect time to get in there.”
Despite the brave words, Vauxhall will undoubtedly have to brace itself for negative as well as positive headlines – and will be crossing its fingers England can turn over a new leaf by qualifying for Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine and then the uber-glamorous prospect of playing in the home of beautiful football – Brazil – when it hosts the 2014 bonanza.
England’s manager Fabio Capello has not exactly been a storming success at tournaments – although England did have a virtually unblemished route to South Africa last year and it will be interesting to see how far he lasts as Vauxhall takes the sponsorship helm.
Vauxhall in many ways fits the advertising portfolio so beloved of commercial stations – along with beer and shaving equipment, cars form the bedrock to bookend live football games – but the UK automaker will be buckling up tightly for the next few years as its sponsorship kicks in.
