London: Barclays has agreed to pay almost 50 per cent more to renew its title sponsorship of the English Premier League, while the bank is embroiled in an international rate-fixing scandal.
The league will receive 120 million pounds ($185 million) over three years from the 2013-14 season, a jump from the 82 million (then $135 million) pounds under the current terms.
Britain's third largest bank has held naming rights to the world's richest football league since 2001.
But the Barclays brand has been tarnished in recent weeks since the extent of the manipulation of a key market interest rate emerged.
The bank was fined $435 million last week by the US and British agencies for making false reports of its borrowing costs from 2005 to 2009, specifically of the London interbank offered rate, or LIBOR, which influences the costs of a range of financial instruments including home mortgages. Britain's Serious Fraud Office has opened a criminal investigation in the scandal.
Bob Diamond, who regularly presented the Premier League winners with the trophy, bowed to public pressure and resigned as chief executive of Barclays last week.
The new Premier League deal comes a month after it sold domestic broadcast rights for the 2013-16 seasons for 3.018 billion pounds ($4.65 billion), an increase of 70 per cent over the preceding three seasons.
The league says its matches reach 212 territories.
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