The Malta Tourism Authority quietly ended its three-year shirt sponsorship arrangement with Sheffield United without fanfare, following the Yorkshire club’s relegation to the third tier of English football last May.
A spokesman for the tourism authority had told The Sunday Times last May that talks were taking place between senior figures at the MTA and the football club about a new sponsorship deal following the expiration of the old agreement.
But yesterday the spokesman said there had always been an understanding that the shirt sponsorship agreement would end if the team was relegated.
He said that following top level discussions with Sheffield United, the tourism authority decided to have a nominal financial sponsorship arrangement with the club as both parties felt the relationship built over recent years should not be lost. He was unable to give specific details of this, but said the amount was a “fraction” of what the MTA paid before.
In 2008, the MTA paid £350,000 (then worth €446,215) to become the main shirt sponsor of Sheffield United when the team were a Championship club (the second tier of English league football) and seen as realistic contenders for promotion to the Premier League. The MTA renewed the deal for a further two years in 2009 for the same amount.
The deal included having the Visitmalta.com logo emblazoned on the club’s kit and displayed prominently at the its 32,700-capacity Bramhall Lane Stadium.
Sheffield United, known as ‘The Blades’, were in Malta last week on a week-long training camp, sporting the logo of their new sponsors Gilders, a Yorkshire Volkswagen dealership, and Westfield Health, a not-for-profit provider of health insurance.
United will be sharing sponsors with their city rivals Sheffield Wednesday next season after local companies expressed concern about being perceived as partisan.
The MTA spokesman said the money saved from the deal will be ploughed into other marketing initiatives.
However, he was unable to say if these initiatives would be aimed at attracting a more diverse range of tourists from the UK – Malta’s core market – which was one of the original aims of the Sheffield United sponsorship.
“We are always looking to expand and attract new tourists, not only from the UK. But we have seen a more diverse range of British tourists in recent years and the Sheffield United sponsorship may have helped us to achieve that as our branding was visible to a broad cross-section of people.”