It means an end to its sponsorship of rugby league's Challenge Cup and rugby union's Anglo-Welsh Powergen Cup, which will need restructuring just one year into its existence.
Its involvement in rugby league began in 2003 as title sponsor of the Powergen Challenge Cup, sponsor of the match officials and a number of community programmes such as the Powergen Champion Schools, Skills Days and the Skills Zone.
These elements to its sponsorship will also become available to new partners at the end of this season.
The Powergen Challenge Cup is the league’s most prestigious and historic domestic knockout tournament.
During 2005, matches were screened live by UK public broadcaster the BBC and more than seven million viewers followed the monthly rounds and the final itself, which this year takes place at the new Wembley Stadium on August 26.
The Rugby Football League’s executive chairman, Richard Lewis, thanked Powergen for their involvement in the sport, adding: “We believe that the Challenge Cup is a massively prestigious tournament that will prove to be a highly attractive sponsorship property for major brands in the future.”
Mike Thompson, Powergen’s head of sponsorship, said: “The sponsorships have come to a natural conclusion for us as a business and with our recent announcement that E.ON, our parent company, is to become a lead partner with The FA from 1 August 2006, this will now become the focus of our sponsorship strategy moving forwards.”
