Facebook to Become Sponsor of England Football Team?

England may have performed poorly in the FIFA World Cup 2010, but it seems that their abject show in football’s biggest stage could not deter the companies like Nationwide, O2, Orange and social networking giant Facebook to become the new sponsor of England national football team.

The Football Association (FA) is now in talks with all of the four interested parties over a possible sponsorship deal. The FA is now demanding £20million for the new deal. Nationwide, who has been England’s sponsor since 1999, is currently believed to be negotiating with FA over the price.

The involvement of Facebook, world’s largest social networking site with over 400 million users, is pretty much surprising. It has no previous experience of sponsoring any sporting team, but now it seems that the American company is trying to further increase its brand value by becoming the sponsor of the Three Lions.

There are many who believe that a deal with Facebook would open up a new door for FA to have more interaction with the English fans. Though Facebook is now followed by millions of people all around the world, it has suffered some criticisms too on privacy ground.

Moreover, many people spend a lot of time in Facebook, and thus, affecting their professional and personal works. That is why, England manager Fabio Capello restricted England players from suing their Facebook accounts during the World Cup.