English Premier League to become a ‘Clean Brand’ in 2016-2017

The English Premier League will have no title sponsorship from season 2016/2017. Premier League governance decided to no longer seek for a title sponsor for its competition and present itself as a ‘clean brand.

The move reflects the organisation desire to mirror major US pro-leagues’ the NBA, MLB, NHL and NFL.

The Premier League confirmed that it would not renew its sponsorship with UK bank Barclays, who have been attached to the title since 2004. The top division of English football will simply be known as ‘The Premier League’.

Barclays paid £57m for a three-year sponsorship deal in 2004 and subsequent extensions saw the value rise to the £120m paid for the existing three-year sponsorship in 2012

A Premier League statement said: “Barclays has been an excellent partner for the League throughout their sponsorship of the competition and we look forward to working with them in 2015-16, the final season of their title sponsorship.”

The 2016-2017 season will be a landmark for the Premier League which will receive £5.1 billion in TV rights for its next three seasons from BSkyB and BT.

The figure represents a 70% increase on Sky and BT’s current £3bn deal. Sky paid £4.176 billion to show 126 matches per season, including the first ever Friday evening games and both Sunday packages. BT Sports paid £960 million for 42 games per season – four more than its present deal