BR Video: Nationwide right to drop England sponsorship

The building society yesterday confirmed it had decided not to renew its deal with the Football Association, after its £20m four-year agreement finished following the World Cup.

We asked members of the public whether they agreed with Nationwide's earlier suggestion that it was unlikely to renew its deal.

Twenty-year old plumber Sam agreed, citing the national team's poor performance as the reason to pull out. "England were rubbish. I wouldn't want anything to do with them."

IT manager Richard, 45, said: "You only really want to sponsor success. The England football team is not a good name, at least not for the next couple of years."

But company director Roger said being aligned with the England team was still attractive. He said: "I think any sponsor it's a good thing to be aligned with the England team but from what I see in the paper I think it's a financial thing and not the standard of football."

Students Marcus and Polly believed it was no big deal to lose Nationwide and the FA could land a bigger sponsor this time.

Asked to suggest a brand to take over the sponsorship, people mentioned Barclays, Tesco, Sainsbury's and an English car manufacturer (if any are left). Marcus stretched the boundaries of probability by putting forward Greenpeace.

This article was first published on brandrepublic.com