GER - Leverkusen lose major backer

LEVERKUSEN (BBL) - Fourteen-time German basketball champions Bayer Giants Leverkusen need a new main sponsor from the end of the 2008 season after the pharmaceutical giants announced cutbacks in its sponsorship programme.

The basketball club have 14 months to find a comparable deal to replace the estimated two million euros (£1.4million) Bayer gave the team this season.

The BBL's current minimum annual budget is one million euros (£681,000).

"Of course we're disappointed, but we're not going to bury our heads in the sand," said Otto Reintjes, Leverkusen's head of basketball operations.

"We're going to do everything we can to keep basketball here past 2008.

"The cutbacks from Bayer bring an end to an unbelievable success story, which has left its mark on Germany for more than 40 years.

"But every sponsor has the right to change their advertising strategy."

The timing could work out well for Reintjes' team, who at least have a raised profile after reaching the play-offs for the first time in three seasons.

However, they are without a German title since 1996.

While football side Bayer Leverkusen's annual budget of 25 million euros (£17million) will not be affected, Bayer is also pulling their funding from the German women's handball champions and from leading volleyball teams.

Bayer have granted an extra year's funding to Germany's athletics team to aid preparations for the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2009 Athletics World Championships in Berlin.

All told, Bayer will withdraw 3.5 million euros (£2.4million) from sports clubs and reinvest it in the existing Bayer Foundation for the Promotion of Science and Education, which will be funded by an additional 10 million euros (£6.8million).

FIBA