Score a pension with Leeds FC

FANS OF Leeds United Football Club will soon be able to buy pensions and mortgages with their match ticket and replica club shirt.

Leeds Sporting, the company that owns the football club, yesterday teamed up with Allied Dunbar and Skipton Building Society to launch a new financial services arm which will offer fans a full range of Leeds-branded financial products.

Apart from pensions and mortgages, the division will also offer life insurance and medical plans.

Leeds will act as an intermediary, introducing potential customers to Allied Dunbar and Skipton Building Society. However, it will not offer fans financial advice.

Jeremy Fenn, Leeds' managing director, said the success of existing financial products had prompted the company to offer a full range.

Leeds already offers car insurance, personal loans and savings accounts through existing partnerships.

"This is a way of developing the brand if we can give the fans something they want," Mr Fenn said.

Leeds will receive commission for every financial product that is sold through its division.

To launch the project, it is offering two free tickets to a home match for every fan who completes a financial consultation by the end of October.

Leeds' move breaks new ground in attempts by football clubs to use their brands to sell other products.

Manchester United's credit card has proved very successful with fans. But no club has yet attempted to extend its brands to complex financial products such as mortgages and pensions.

Meanwhile, Alan Sugar, chairman of Tottenham Hotspur, yesterday confirmed that he had rejected another bid for his stake in Tottenham Hotspur football club.

A consortium led by Richard Littlejohn, the newspaper columnist and radio pundit, had offered "not less than 85 pence per share" for 29.9 per cent of the club.

Mr Sugar has a 40.88 per cent stake in Spurs.

The offer topped an 80p a share bid from a consortium including English National Investment Company, the financial firm, and Lord Hollick's United News & Media, which was rejected last week.