PWC backs England's World Cup bid

By Bill Wilson
Business reporter, BBC News

David Beckham and Wayne Rooney launched the England bid at Wembley

Accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) has been named as the first sponsor to support England's bid to host the 2018 football World Cup.

PWC will act as business adviser for the campaign to host the World Cup.

It comes as a preliminary estimate from the company shows that staging the tournament could boost the national economy by £3.2bn.

PWC says it has a strong track record of advising football clubs, from the Premier League to lower divisions.

It is hoped the PWC deal is the first of a series of partner and sponsor contracts.

'Budget advice'

A 14-strong PWC team will give independent advice on various aspects of the bid, and be involved in England 2018's discussions with other key stakeholders including the UK government, applicant host cities and football body FIFA.

"We are tremendously passionate about our partnership with England 2018, as well as the UK sports market, and look forward to providing economic impact assessment, guidance on tax and guarantees, and advice on the budget to the bid team," said Julie Clark, PWC's head of sport.

"PWC has a strong regional network of offices which is very well aligned with the list of applicant host cities, and the sponsorship therefore benefits the firm across the UK."

The other countries which want to host the World Cup in 2018 or 2022 are Spain and Portugal (joint bid), Australia, Belgium and the Netherlands (joint bid), Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Qatar, Russia, and the US.