Barclays paying more to renew EPL sponsorship

LONDON (AP) -- Barclays agreed to pay almost 50 percent more to renew its title sponsorship of the English Premier League, while the bank is embroiled in an international rate-fixing scandal.

The league will receive $185 million over three years from the 2013-14 season, an increase from the $135 million under the current terms.

Britain's third largest bank has held naming rights to the world's richest soccer league since 2001. But the Barclays brand has been tarnished in recent weeks after news of manipulation of a key market interest rate.

The bank was fined $435 million last week by U.S. and British agencies for making false reports of its borrowing costs from 2005 to 2009.

Bob Diamond, who regularly presented the Premier League winners with the trophy, resigned as chief executive of Barclays last week.

The new Premier League deal comes a month after it sold domestic broadcast rights for the 2013-16 seasons for $4.65 billion, an increase of 70 percent over the preceding three seasons.

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