The deals with football’s elite...websites, cufflinks and scarves

Glue Creative Production Solutions, which trades as Glue, has been running for a decade and promotes its links with a series of football organisations on which Sir Dave Richards plays a senior role – though without mentioning the family connection.

A list of clients on Glue’s website includes the Football Association (FA), of which Sir Dave is a vice-chairman. The website also provides details of promotional material the company provided for the FA-backed bid to host the 2018 World Cup, which included a showcase launch at Wembley in May 2009. Two months before, Sir Dave had been made vice chairman of the bid’s board.

The company website says Glue was “asked by the England 2018 Bidding Nation Team to produce a range of promotional merchandise to be given away at various events in the UK and also during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa”. The promotional material included football scarves, T-shirts, baseball caps and button badges with “VIPs receiving premium pens and hand-made Italian calf leather notebooks packaged in exclusive branded wrapping”.

Glue’s owner, Sir Dave’s son David, had his picture taken with David Beckham at the launch which was later used by the company for publicity. It is unclear how Glue became involved with the bid.

Asked how the company acquired the work, David Richards said the football clients would be “the best people to answer on Glue’s behalf” adding they would say “the scale of work we do for them... is insignificant”.

He declined to provide any further details beyond stating: “The way in which we get any work is through conventional sales and marketing methods undertaken by our experienced team... this involves lots of hard work.”

The FA declined to comment.

The company has also produced promotional materials for the Premier League, of which Sir Dave is chairman, including children’s gym sacks and sports umbrellas which are showcased on Glue’s website. The Premier League said it did not have a contract with Glue but the company was one of several suppliers it used to provide promotional material on an ad hoc basis.

Another football organisation featuring as a client on Glue’s website is the Association of European Professional Football Leagues (EPFL), which Sir Dave chairs and helped form from his platform as Premier League chairman. Business from the Swiss-based EPFL included gold-plated and hard enameled cufflinks and, more substantially, designing and building the EPFL’s website.

David Richards said Glue had won a contract with the EPFL, by open tender process, to create a website. He did not expand on Glue’s business relationship with the EPFL, but an article in a local chamber of commerce newsletter in the spring of 2009 included comments from Glue director Eian McKay on the background to the EPFL tie-up though it didn’t refer to the Richards’ family connection.

Mr McKay said: “We started working with the EPFL supplying them with branded gifts such as pens, notepads and conference bags. However, we quickly became aware of the EPFL’s desire to have their own website for the benefit of their members and also to raise their profile.

“We asked to be included on their invitation to tender list and through our team’s knowledge, creativity and sheer hard work, we managed to beat off opposition from across Europe to land the contract for the first ever EPFL website – something which we feel rightfully very proud of.”

The EPFL denied there was any potential conflict of interest through Sir Dave being chairman, said all its procedures are “rigorous and transparent” and added Sir Dave had not taken part in any decisions relating to Glue.

Glue also promotes its work with the Football Foundation of South Africa (FFSA), a non-profit organisation to encourage the growth of the game, which is chaired by Sir Dave, who is also a high profile fundraiser for the NSPCC. David Richards said the company had provided its services, including website design, free of charge.

He also said Glue did not have contracts with the FA, the Premier League or the England 2018 bid but declined to detail further how business had been awarded.