BT ties with Football League for kids' cup

by Drew Barrand, Marketing 19-Oct-05

LONDON - BT is moving into football sponsorship for the first time through a grass-roots deal with The Football League which will see it launch a national tournament for primary-school children.

The BT Community Cup, a six-a-side competition for under-11s, will involve more than 20,000 children. The initial one-year sponsorship deal is thought to be worth more than £1m.

The tournament begins later this month. Each of the 72 clubs in The Football League will stage qualifying matches between schools in its area.

Local finals will be played at each league club's ground before a first-team match. The winners of these games will go on to represent their local league club in the latter stages of the competition from which three pairs of winners, representing each of the league's divisions, will go through to the finals.

The BT Community Cup will be decided on the pitch before each of the Coca-Cola Football League divisional play-off finals in May.

A similar tournament will run for girls under the age of 13. The final of The Football League BT Girls Cup will be played before the LDV Vans Trophy final in April.

The BT tie-up replaces a similar deal with Kellogg's Frosties, whose contract ended last season.

The sponsorship is being viewed internally at BT as key to its corporate social responsibility programme.

It follows the league's recent launch of 'Fans of the future', an initiative to get more youngsters watching their local club, with many offering free or discounted admission to matches.

If you have an opinion on this or any other issue raised on Brand Republic, join the debate in the Forum.