In court proceedings yesterday it came to light that after deciding to sponsor Ferrari on
April 5 2001, Vodafone failed to tell Jordan who stated that he was under the impression that a decision was still two weeks away.
The Court heard how Jordan was kept "hanging on" as a contractual obligation with TIM - one of Ferrari's existing sponsors, and a local competitor to Vodafone in Italy - was resolved.
Lawyers for Jordan claimed that Vodafone intended to enter into a £150million title sponsorship deal with Jordan, if it could not resolve its contractual obligations to TIM.
They also claimed that in a telephone call to Ian Phillips of Jordan, Peter Harris of Vodafone told Phillips that Jordan was still "very
much in the frame" and it "looked promising" - even though Harris knew of that day's decision by the Vodafone board to enter into secondary
sponsorship with Ferrari.
The delay in telling Jordan of Vodafone's decision is claimed to have damaged Jordan's negotiations with Gallaher and other sponsors for renewing their commitment to Jordan.
Vodafone's David Haines denies entering into a three year title sponsorship with Jordan
in a phone call to Eddie Jordan on March 22 2001, where he is alleged to have said "You've got the deal".
Haines has also previously stated that he has no electronic evidence of any of his sponsorship negotiations with Jordan.
Jordan is suing Vodafone for reneging on the verbal agreement on the sponsorship deal.
sportbusiness.com
The ongoing legal case between Vodafone and F1 team owner Eddie Jordan has taken another twist after the High Court heard that the telecommunications firm did not inform Jordan that it had signed a deal to sponsor rival team Ferrari.
