EFL | Partnerships | Vertu Motors

Proud to Partner with the English Football League

Vertu is proud to partner with the English Football League as title sponsor of the EFL Trophy. Now known as the Vertu Trophy, the competition is famed for giving the next generation of youngsters their opportunity on the pitch, and offers clubs the chance to battle for silverware and earn the opportunity to play at Wembley Stadium. Our investment will help to support these clubs, and their communities, over a multi-year period to the end of the 2025/26 season.

A Grand Day Out

Originally launched in the early 1980s, the Vertu Trophy is a competition open to teams competing in League One and League Two, alongside 16 invited Category One Academy teams. After regional group stages and a number of knock-out rounds, the teams are whittled down to the final two to face off at Wembley Stadium to battle for the trophy.

The 2022 finale between Bolton Wanders and Plymouth Argyle was watched by 79,389 fans making it the best attended game in Europe that weekend, despite the likes of Real Madrid and Bayern Munich all being in action on the continent. The competition attracts over 200,000 spectators each season and a cumulative domestic TV audience of almost 400,000 thanks to live coverage on Sky Sports.

Community Engagement

A football club is often the beating heart of a community, and the Vertu Trophy is a competition where communities are very much brought to the fore. Our involvement has given us the opportunity to work with clubs to provide community groups and worthy local causes with hundreds of free tickets to attend games at all stages of the competition, including the 2023 final at Wembley Stadium - where two community heroes representing the finalists were given the honour of carrying what was then the Bristol Street Motors Trophy onto the pitch before the game.

The Next Generation

A number of teams use their entry into the Vertu Trophy to blood fresh talent, with over half of the players to feature for League One and Two teams up to the quarter-final stage of the 2022 competition being aged 21 and under.

The competition is very much a place to see potential stars of the future take their first steps into the sport, with a number of top international players - including the likes of England regulars Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka - having made their professional debuts in the Trophy.

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Financial Rewards

The Vertu Trophy provides League One and League Two clubs with a valuable additional revenue stream, with a prize pot of almost £3 million.

The opportunity to play at Wembley in front of a large crowd also provides large financial incentives for teams, as does the new broadcast deal with Sky Sports that sees all games in the competition being broadcast from the 2024/25 season.

Investment from Vertu will result in an increased prize pot in the coming years in a huge boost to competing teams.

Key To Communities

"As a national business, Bristol Street Motors is hugely proud of the connections we have developed with communities across the UK through our dealership network.

"Across the communities, football is something that brings people together, so the opportunity to join forces with the EFL and Clubs that are such an important part of life for our customers was something that was simply too good to turn down.

"We are hugely excited to be named as title sponsor of the EFL Trophy and look forward to engaging with Clubs and fans over the next three years to make the competition bigger and better than ever before."

Robert Forrester

Chief Executive of Bristol Street Motors

"We are delighted to welcome Bristol Street Motors as title sponsor of the EFL Trophy in a partnership that sees further investment into League One and Two clubs over the duration of the deal.

"With almost 22 million supporters coming through the turnstiles in all our competitions last year, a thriving community network and a landmark broadcast deal in place for next season which will see all Bristol Street Motors Trophy fixtures broadcast live by Sky Sports, the appeal of the EFL continues to grow from strength to strength offering a unique, valuable platform for our commercial partners."