Future Group Pulls Out Of BCCI's Central Sponsorship Ahead Of IPL 2020

Future Group, a retail conglomerate, has pulled out of the BCCI’s central sponsorship list for the IPL ahead of the cash-rich league’s 13th edition.

The onslaught of Covid-19 has hugely impacted the company and if the report published by PTI is to be believed, the company is on the verge of a takeover following huge losses due to hostile economic climate prevailing in the world due to the proliferation of the novel pandemic.

“Yes, Future Group has pulled out of IPL central sponsorship and that’s the reason their logo has been removed from the IPL website. At this point in time, I won’t like to elaborate on the development,” a BCCI official confirmed the development to news agency PTI.

“Future Group has been in bad shape since the start of Covid-19. It was bound to happen that they wouldn’t have been able to spend Rs 40 crore to be a part of BCCI’s central sponsorship pool. Hence, the pull-out is not a surprise. Right now, the Future Group is going through a restructuring phase and there are talks with multi-national conglomerates about its potential takeover in the next few weeks. So sponsoring sporting events at the moment wasn’t the top priority for Future Group,” a source was quoted as saying by PTI.

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Unacademy in line to replace Future Group as one of the IPL sponsors

With the Future Group pulling out as one of the sponsors, it is learnt that education-technology company Unacademy, which recently lost the IPL sponsorship bid to eventual winners Dream11, is in contention to become one of the official sponsors alongside credit card payment app Cred.

With the IPL sponsorship amount getting nearly halved [from Rs 440 crore from Vivo to Rs 222 crore via Dream11], and the recent pull-out by Future Group, the franchises will get a lesser amount than what they usually get. But one of the senior officials of a franchise said that one can’t blame the BCCI for the current financial crisis and they are ready to stand by the apex cricketing body in such troubled times.

“We know it’s not an ideal situation but you can’t blame BCCI for this. There is a financial crisis. If franchises have earned and made gains during good times, they understand and stand by BCCI during troubled times,” a senior official of a franchise told PTI.

The 13th edition of the IPL will take place in the United Arab Emirates between September 19-November 10.

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