Coca-Cola And The Football League Sign New Deal

Title sponsor re-signs for a further three years

Coca-Cola Great Britain and The Football League are proud to announce a new three year deal, continuing the company's biggest ever domestic football commitment. The new deal sees the company continue its Football League sponsorship through three of its main brands - 'Coca-Cola', 'Coca-Cola Zero' and 'Powerade'.

The partnership, which commences at the start of the 2007/08 football season, will see the 'Coca-Cola' brand remain as title sponsor of The Football League for a further three years, up until the end of the 2009/10 season, with 'Powerade' as the official sports drink and 'Coca-Cola Zero' as the official fans soft drink.

Steve Cumming, Head of Sponsorship, Coca-Cola Great Britain said: "Coca-Cola is the world's biggest brand and one of its best loved, with a great heritage in supporting football. With the help of 'Powerade' and 'Coca-Cola Zero' we're looking forward to cementing the deep partnerships we've already built with club communities and fans around the world.

"We cannot underestimate the importance of using this new deal to build on the foundation of innovative ideas we've developed over the last three seasons to help strengthen The League and get the fans closer to their clubs and teams."

Lord Mawhinney, Chairman of the Football League said: "Having a company like 'Coca-Cola' as our title sponsor for a further three seasons is a terrific boost for The Football League. Their continued support is a huge vote of confidence in our clubs and our competition. It also demonstrates that the re-branded Football League is a power in the commercial marketplace.

"During the first three years of our partnership they have made a great impression with The League and with football fans throughout the country and we value their input highly. We look forward, very much, to our continued partnership working to our mutual benefit."

'Coca-Cola' became title sponsor of The Football League in the summer of 2004 and this year's Play Offs will mark the third anniversary of the deal. The strength of the relationship is based on a unique fit between 'Coca-Cola' and The Football League - both share a true heritage in the game and an understanding of the passions of real football fans everywhere.

Over the last three years, 'Coca-Cola' has brought its strategic and marketing expertise to its investment with The Football League, culminating in the success of its Club Colours campaign, Win A Player promotion and this year's Buy A Player promotion.

'Coca-Cola' plans to develop further groundbreaking initiatives in partnership with The Football League over the coming seasons. Later on this year, 'Coca-Cola' will launch a brand new recycling initiative allowing fans to collect rewards for themselves and their clubs in exchange for old drinks cans and bottles.

'Coca-Cola' launched its sponsorship via the Club Colours campaign. With the aim of reaching out to the core of each clubs' community, for the first time ever 'Coca-Cola' gave permission for the colours of its iconic red and white logo to be changed to each of the colours of the 72 Football League clubs.

Club Colours reached new heights when millions of fans around the world saw the FIFA World Cup 2006 perimeter boards at stadiums in Germany feature the
'Coca-Cola' logo in the colour of the participating nations. The Club Colours programme underpins Coca-Cola's relationship with the fans and highlights the company's timeless brand values - shared authenticity, heritage, a sense of optimism and ability to bring people together.

'Coca-Cola' also highlighted its commitment to Football League fans by launching the award winning Win A Player on-pack promotion, which has seen over £600,000 given away to clubs' transfer kitties and £30,000 prize money given directly to fans in Coca-Cola's biggest ever domestic on-pack promotion.

And this year 'Coca-Cola' strengthened its commitment to supporting the game with the launch of 'Buy A Player' - a promotion that gives all Football League and Scottish
Premier League clubs the chance to win part of a huge £10M transfer kitty. Already almost £500,000 has been won by fans entering their codes from special bottles on their phones and online, including £250,000 for Hull City, courtesy of lifelong fan Geof Pearson.

'Powerade' and 'Coca-Cola Zero' will continue to play integral roles in supporting the deep partnership between the brands and The Football League. The 'Powerade' Player of the Month Awards highlight and reward the outstanding achievements of The League's most consistent performers on a monthly basis, while the launch of the Powerade Cup last summer in association with Virgin Radio delved deep into the grassroots aspect of the game by giving amateur teams around the UK the chance to receive professional coaching from leading Football League managers.

'Coca-Cola Zero' will also be supporting The Football League partnership with a series of new initiatives to be announced later this year, including the launch of its biggest on-pack promotion to date prior to the 07/08 season. Full details will be announced in the coming months.

'Coca-Cola' has been investing in football for over 30 years in this country at all levels from grassroots to international tournaments. As well as sponsoring the Football League, Coca-Cola's football portfolio includes sponsorship of the FIFA World Cup until 2022, UEFA European Championships and an ongoing relationship with Manchester United and England star Wayne Rooney.


Since becoming title sponsor in 2004 Coca-Cola has:

• Given away almost £1M to date to Football League clubs transfer kitties through Win A Player and now Buy A Player promotions
• Put The Football League logo on over 500 million packs of 'Coca-Cola' and 'Powerade' bottles
• Seen over 10,000 goals scored in The Football League in almost three seasons
• Awarded 75 'Coca-Cola' Manager of the Month and 'Powerade' Player of the Month awards

'Coca-Cola' and 'Coke' are registered trade marks of The Coca-Cola Company.