Scudamore admits: My job was on line

Richard Scudamore, chief executive of the Premier League, admitted for the first time today that he knew his job was on the line unless he found a new title sponsor to replace Carling.

Barclaycard were unveiled yesterday as the new sponsors of the Premiership in a deal worth £48 million over three years, a 33 per cent increase on the contract with Carling which expires at the end of the season.

Scudamore was under pressure from Premiership club chairmen to find a replacement after Carling angrily withdrew a £39m offer to extend their eight-year relationship in January, claiming they could not wait any longer for a decision.

The breakdown in talks came only months after a £328m payper-view television deal with cable company NTL collapsed, leaving Scudamore's position under threat.

But a consortium of digital and cable companies last month paid around £170m for the three-year TV deal and, with the Barclaycard sponsor-ship taking Scudamore's commercial and media deals to £1.8 billion in the past 15 months. the pressure is off.

The former Football League chief executive admitted today, however, that it has been a difficult period for him.

Scudamore said: "For 20 years I have understood that if you don't get a result, your job's in danger. That's the harsh reality of the commercial world.

"Whether privately the chairmen expressed doubts about what was happening I don't know.

"When you set yourself targets, and I set myself very high targets, you always face the risk that you might not meet them.

"We could have gone away and done two thirds of the deals we have done and saved ourselves a lot of pain and hard work but that's not what I am here to do.

"I am pleased for the chairmen because they have stuck with it. Everything I asked them to go with, they went with. I told them the end of April was D-day and I was confident that we would be able to conclude a very good deal.

"There was always a risk that we weren't going to fulfil this but as I was confident in the brand, the product and the team working on this, I was always confident we'd come out of this okay."

Barclaycard won the contract after a last-minute scramble between three companies left out of a total of 200 possible candidates. The league will be known from next season as the FA Barclaycard Premiership.

The deal also includes a ground-breaking international tie-up with the British Tourist Authority, part of a Government backed move to improve the image of Britain abroad following the damaging foot and mouth crisis.

The BTA will pay around £2m over three years, for exposure to the Premier League's reported audience of 158 million viewers in their 10 key markets.

Final details will not be announced until 21 May but the Premier League marketing and broadcasting machine will be used to spread the message overseas that Britain is open for business.

Kingstonian reached the final of the Nationwide Variety Club Trophy when they won 5-0 at Yeovil last night.

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