The Sponsorship Was Reportedly Pulled Out Due To Restructuring Of Company:
The Future Group Retail Conglomerate, which is currently undergoing a restructuring process, has withdrawn from the BCCI central sponsorship list for the Indian Premier League. Future Group has been forced to withdraw as the company is potentially on the verge of takeover and has sustained losses due to the prevailing hostile economic environment following the COVID-19 pandemic. “Yes, Future Group has withdrawn from IPL ‘s central sponsorship, and that’s why their logo has been removed from IPL ‘s website. At this point in time, I’m not going to want to expand on the development,” a veteran of the BCCI reported the growth of a leading sports website.
When a Future Group official was approached, he declined to comment, but the insiders of the sector indicated that the withdrawal was due to the financial health of the company. “Future Group has been in bad shape since the beginning of COVID-19. It was bound to happen that they will not have been able to invest Rs 40 crore to be part of BCCI ‘s central sponsorship pool. Therefore, the pull-out is no surprise,” the source said.
“Right now, the Future Group is undergoing a restructuring process and negotiations with global conglomerates about its possible takeover in the coming weeks. But hosting sporting activities at the moment was not a top priority for the Future Group,” he said.
It is learned that the training-technology company Unacademy, which lost the IPL title sponsorship bid to the fantasy gaming company Dream11, is in line to become one of the official sponsors along with the credit card payment app Cred. As of now, there are just four partners on the IPL website.
They ‘re Dream11 as title sponsors along with Tata Motors (Altroz), PayTM and Ceat tyres. Usually, BCCI shares half of its central sponsorship kitty with the franchises. Usually, BCCI shares half of its central sponsorship kitty with the franchises.
Nonetheless, with the title sponsorship sum reduced to almost half (from Rs 440 crore from Vivo to Rs 222 crore from Dream11) and subsequent pull-outs, the teams are expected to get less than they had previously won.
“We know this isn’t the ideal situation, but you can’t blame BCCI for it. There’s a financial crisis. If franchises have earned and made gains in good times, they understand and support BCCI in troubled times,” said a senior franchise official.
