Three Lions victory for Umbro
Sportswear company Umbro today won exclusive rights to the Three Lions crest under a new long-term kit deal with the Football Association.
From the middle of next year it will be the only firm allowed to license items featuring England’s famous badge – popular on goods from t-shirts and caps to wallpaper and bed linen.
Umbro currently shares the rights with several retailers and manufacturers - but said the logo had become so widely used it was unclear who the companies were.
The Three Lions coup is part of a contract which will see Umbro provide kit to the England national teams and sell replica kits globally until the end of the 2013/14 season – a four-year extension on the current agreement.
It comes as football fever builds ahead of next year’s World Cup in Germany, where England are second-favourites and sales of shirts and other memorabilia are set to soar.
Umbro began its kit sponsorship with England in 1984 and has supplied them during a number of major championships, including Euro ‘96 when the phrase “Three Lions” was on the lips of every supporter thanks to the hit song by comedians David Baddiel, Frank Skinner and pop group The Lightening Seeds.
The firm today said it would spend £3 million buying itself out of the existing contract and expects to start seeing a profit from the deal by 2010.
Umbro will also become one of four founding partners at the new Wembley Stadium, be the title sponsor of the National Football Centre at Burton-upon-Trent, and be official football supplier to the FA at all levels of the game from August 2006.
Sponsoring the National Football Centre will cost £12m (€17.7m) over three years with an extra amount paid for the ball supply deal.
Umbro will also pay annual fees to the FA for its involvement with the 90,000-seat Wembley Stadium due to open next year and which will host music concerts and other live sporting events as well as football.
It follows Microsoft in becoming a founding partner in the stadium – a position that gives it marketing rights including prominent branding at England home games and official merchandise stalls stocking its products.
Umbro chief executive Peter McGuigan said: “We are thrilled to have strengthened our strong relationship with the FA and look forward to reaching the 30 year mark of working together.
“We also look forward to developing a similar strong relationship with our new partners at Wembley Stadium.
“Today’s announcement gives us the platform to drive our business forward, not only in our home market, but also in our growing overseas markets.”
The FA’s group commercial director Jonathan Hill said the deal would benefit all levels of the game.
“This is much more than an extension of the existing kit supply agreement and will cover a wide range of areas where we believe our existing excellent relationship with Umbro can only lead to further benefits for the group,” Mr Hill said.
Shares in Umbro rose 3% today.
