In 2006, we were proud to become sponsors of one of sport's best-loved and most famous competitions, The FA Cup, together with the FA Women's Cup and The FA Youth Cup. This brought about a major step-change in our sponsorship portfolio, as we also ended our involvement with rugby. We were also delighted to become the official The Tour of Britain sponsor, while we continue our ongoing support for Ipswich Town Football Club. Our objective of ensuring as many people have access to sport at all levels is still a priority, with many new initiatives already being created from the new sponsorship opportunities.

Rugby union

In 2006, we sponsored the National Rugby Community Programme, the largest rugby scheme of its kind in the world. The scheme is designed to take the sport into schools and rugby clubs local to the 12 Guinness Premiership clubs to enable as many youngsters as possible to get involved and in 2006, more than 400,000 young people took part.

Rugby league

Through our Powergen brand, we sponsored the Champion Schools Tournament, which promotes rugby league within secondary schools to increase grassroots participation in the game. This is the largest rugby league tournament in the world and during 2006 involved more than 1,300 teams and 25,000 participants.

Football

In 2006, we became Sponsor of The FA Cup, The FA Women's Cup, The FA Youth Cup and The FA Schools Programme. As the Schools Partner, we are supporting 20,000 schools through Up For The Cup, a resource that goes to all primary schools in England. This supports the curriculum by using the excitement and passion of The FA Cup as a stimulus. E.ON also supports more than 20,000 children through programmes such as the Junior Football Organiser Scheme, which encourages young people to help create and manage football events. In 2007, up to 200,000 children take part in E.ON National FA Cup Schools Day, which is a day of fun and activities to celebrate the magic of the competition.

In addition to The FA Cup sponsorship, we are title sponsor of Ipswich Town Football Club and through this relationship, we also sponsor the Ipswich Town Community Trust, which runs a range of educational and skills initiatives. More than 70,000 children benefit each year from the schemes run by the Trust, which are aimed at either increasing football participation or raising educational standards by using football as a backdrop to learning.