Murray makes move as crisis spreads to world of sport

Published on Sunday 22 February 2009 21:28

IF ANY proof were needed that the world of sport cannot remain immune from the global financial crisis it was the news yesterday that Andy Murray is willing to renegotiate the terms of his sponsorship deal with the Royal Bank of Scotland in a bid to "help" the ailing bank.

The world tennis No 4 from Dunblane is one of Britain's best known and wealthiest young sportsmen and has enjoyed a relationship with RBS since the age of 13. Under his current deal, the 21-year-old is contracted to wear the company's logo on his sleeve.

However, with the bank recently posting losses of 28billion and having to be bailed out by the government, leaving it 68 per cent owned by the tax payer, Murray has indicated that he is willing to discuss a cut in his sponsorship.

"RBS have supported me since I was 13 years old and I have a great relationship with them," said Murray. "I hope that relationship continues. The bank kindly supported me when I was going through the difficult transition from the juniors to the seniors. Now I want to try and help them. I don't want to discuss whether I am planning to give money back or not. I will speak to the people at RBS about the best way forward and we will work something out. The bottom line is I want to help."

Now that it is effectively under state control, everything RBS does in future – including its substantial involvement in sport, estimated at 200million – will thus be determined by the British government. And, with a general election due to be held in May 2010 at the latest, that means the UK electorate could, albeit indirectly, decide on what the banking group does in future in sports such as rugby, cricket and golf.

The RBS Six Nations Championship, as the rugby tournament has been known since 2003, is just the most high-profile instance of the bank's involvement in sport. At the top level it also sponsors cricket's RBS Cup and the AT&T Williams Formula One team, as well as paying a number of sportsmen and women to be "global ambassadors" – among them Sir Jackie Stewart, Jack Nicklaus and Sachin Tendulkar.

Others who benefit from the bank's sponsorship include golfers Luke Donald and Paula Creamer and the royal equestrian Zara Phillips. Only last week, one member of the Treasury Select Committee suggested that all these athletes should rip up their contracts.

"I think it would go down very well with the British public if some of them were to cancel their contracts," said John Mann MP. "Some of them would become real heroes if they did. I think they need to consider that this is borrowers' money we are talking about."

Mann is by no means alone in his punitive attitude towards the bank's sponsorship programme. Responding to the criticism, a spokeswoman for the bank would only say the matter was under review. "We are, of course, reviewing all our sponsorship activity as we look to cut costs," she said. "We are doing our best to strike the right balance between the benefits sponsorships bring to our businesses and the communities they operate in, while managing costs down within contractual constraints."

Contractual constraints include a commitment – made only last month – to remain as title sponsor of the Six Nations until 2013. But the small print of that contract and others will be scrutinised ever more keenly by politicians as the election approaches, and the bank is aware of the sensitivity of its sporting involvement.

Only last month, for example, Stephen Hester, the chief executive of RBS, said in an interview with The Scotsman that the amount spent on the Williams F1 team would be under scrutiny.

Of course, RBS is far from being the only financial group with an interest in sport. HSBC, for instance, is also involved in rugby, golf and equestrianism, and Barclays sponsors English football's Premier League, golf's Scottish Open at Loch Lomond, and this week's Dubai Tennis Championships.

While they remain outwith the state sector, those banks will not be as susceptible as RBS to political pressure. But they are just as open to other economic influences, and in the years to come they too will have to ask if they are getting a good deal from their investment in sport.

Over the next five days, The Scotsman will examine six of our major sports, and ask just how vulnerable each one is. We will look at their current sources of income, and try to determine whether those sources are in danger of drying up. We will invite leading figures in some of those sports to say how confident they are of surviving the recession, and we will ask if their confidence is based on firm reasoning, or misplaced. Which sports will emerge leaner and fitter, having put paid to wasteful practices? Which will learn the hard way?

With the economy in such a volatile state, it is impossible to paint a minutely detailed portrait of the sporting landscape as it will exist in five or ten years' time. What is certain, however, is that drastic changes have already occurred, and will continue to do so.