CHARLES SALE: Morrisons inject £1m into England's 2018 World Cup bid

19 February 2010 23:26
Marc Bolland, the Dutch captain of industry lured to Marks & Spencer with a £15million golden hello package, has played an influential role in securing a valuable sponsorship deal for England's bid to host the 2018 World Cup. [LNB]A £1m deal with Morrisons, the supermarket chain which he ran successfully for three years, is to be unveiled at Wembley on Monday. [LNB]Bolland was enthusiastic about backing England's campaign despite his own country being 2018 rivals in a joint bid with Belgium. [LNB] Public face: David Beckham is a figurehead for England's World Cup 2018 bid[LNB]Bolland, an adviser to Ajax, is a keen follower of football and was responsible, while working at Heineken, for their major football sponsorships with the Champions League and rugby's equivalent, the Heineken Cup. [LNB]Ironically the England 2018 World Cup campaign has Sir Terry Leahy, the boss of Tesco, on their roster of vice-presidents. Tesco were given the opportunity to support the bid before Morrisons stepped in. [LNB]Morrisons, who will give England 2018 plenty of promotional opportunities in their stores, have previously used football pundit Alan Hansen in their TV advertising. [LNB]The sponsorship is a coup for 2018 commercial director Jonathan Gregory, who has brought in three blue-chip backers with others in the offing. [LNB]  [LNB]    More from Charles Sale... Charles Sale: Globetrotter David Dein is on board with the England 2018 World Cup bid at last18/02/10 Charles Sale: John Terry too exposed for ITV cover shot17/02/10 CHARLES SALE: Official BBC report bares all in Ben Jacobs sabotage saga16/02/10 CHARLES SALE: West Ham seek £40m injection as to reduce £100m debt15/02/10 CHARLES SALE: Olympics on alert after Ipswich Town owner Marcus Evans' offers14/02/10 CHARLES SALE: Inverdale's treatment of Sven Goran Eriksson a choker12/02/10 CHARLES SALE: Northern Ireland's claim rubbished over England visit for Windsor Park reopening11/02/10 Charles Sale: Michael Grade wants to succeed Lord Mawhinney as chairman of Football League10/02/10 Charles Sale: Barmy England put shirt on Kasabian09/02/10 VIEW FULL ARCHIVEThe Sports Management Group, based in Canary Wharf, have caused a stir by promoting their commercial representation of 1,900 sports stars including stellar names Usain Bolt, Tiger Woods, Steven Gerrard, Cristiano Ronaldo, Rio Ferdinand, Xabi Alonso, Rafa Nadal, Andrew Flintoff, Kevin Pietersen, Kimi Raikkonen and many more. [LNB]All this despite Mathew Nuttall, named as chief executive on the company website, having a bankruptcy order against him last month. [LNB]Nuttall said: 'IMG and other agencies have given us rights to pursue commercial deals and the bankruptcy issue was personal and is being rectified.' [LNB]Hull City, who have recently settled out of court with Paul Duffen after making serious allegations of mismanagement against their former executive chairman, have arranged a friendly next Friday at Galway United of all places. [LNB]The Irish club's chief executive has a history of financial misdemeanour rather greater than anything alleged against Duffen. He's Nick Leeson, the rogue trader who brought down Barings Bank. [LNB]New media darling Robbie Savage is finding different ways of becoming the focus of attention every time he's a pundit at Villa Park. [LNB]He was hit in the face by a clearance during Villa's match against West Ham while he unwittingly turned up for the Manchester United game wearing a woman's coat, much to the amusement of colleagues. [LNB]Savage had to borrow a coat after misjudging the weather. [LNB] Skipper the sipper England rugby captain Steve Borthwick (right), whose leadership qualities have been a matter of debate, is switched on when it comes to product placement on the BBC.[LNB] His interview after the Six Nations game in Italy last weekend was halted three times due to technical problems. [LNB]But each time Borthwick was given the starting nod, he began sipping from a bottle of Gatorade with the branding in full view of the cameras. [LNB]BBC Sport will not reveal details of their controversial World Cup studio in Cape Town until a press conference in April. The studio is being built on the roof of the Somerset Hospital to allow backdrops - provided it's not misty - of Table Mountain, the Waterfront and the Green Point Stadium.[LNB]But they say the extra cost, which includes all the other supporting facilities being built in the hospital car park, is somehow 'minimal' due to the high rental prices in the official broadcasting centres. [LNB]Leeds United chairman Ken Bates, a tax exile resident of Monaco, has used his column in the club programme to campaign for East Yorkshire village Wetwang to be reinstated to the BBC regional weather map. [LNB]Bates reckons heads should roll at the Beeb if Wetwang - where BBC North weather presenter Paul Hudson is mayor - is not brought back.[LNB][LNB]  Explore more:People:Rio Ferdinand, Kevin Pietersen, Xabi Alonso, Andrew Flintoff, Cristiano Ronaldo, Steven Gerrard, Usain Bolt, Ken Bates, Robbie Savage, Tiger Woods, Paul DuffenPlaces:Monaco, Cape Town, Monaco, United Kingdom, Italy, Belgium

Source: Daily_Mail