EFL | Partnerships | Vertu Motors

A Grand Day Out

Originally launched in the early 1980s, the Vertu Trophy is a competition open to teams competing in League One and League Two, alongside 16 invited Category One Academy teams. After regional group stages and a number of knock-out rounds, the teams are whittled down to the final two to face off at Wembley Stadium to battle for the trophy.

In 2024 and our first season in partnership with the EFL, a group of fans travelled all the way from Spain to support Wycombe Wanderers as they took on Peterborough, whilst more than 70,000 were in attendance in 2025 when Posh returned to beat Birmingham City and take back-to-back titles.

Alongside growing attendance figures at games, live coverage on Sky Sports puts the Vertu Trophy in front of a domestic TV audience of almost 400,000.

Community Engagement

A football club is often the beating heart of a community, and the Vertu Trophy is a competition where communities are very much brought to the fore.

Our involvement has given us the opportunity to work with clubs to provide community groups and worthy local causes with hundreds of free tickets to attend games at all stages of the competition.

For the final at Wembley, that included two fans being given the honour of carrying the trophy onto the pitch before the game.

Drive Away Happy

In 2025, fan engagement was taken to a new level when a competition provided two fans with the chance to attend the final where they went head-to-head in a half-time challenge in order to win a Toyota Aygo X.

The Next Generation

A number of teams use their entry into the Vertu Trophy to blood fresh talent, with over half of the players to feature for League One and Two teams up to the quarter-final stage of the 2022 competition being aged 21 and under.

The competition is very much a place to see potential stars of the future take their first steps into the sport, with a number of top international players - including the likes of England regulars Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka - having made their professional debuts in the Trophy.

Financial Rewards

The Vertu Trophy provides League One and League Two clubs with a valuable additional revenue stream, with a prize pot of almost £3 million.

The opportunity to play at Wembley in front of a large crowd also provides large financial incentives for teams, as does the new broadcast deal with Sky Sports that sees all games in the competition being broadcast from the 2024/25 season.

Investment from Vertu will result in an increased prize pot in the coming years in a huge boost to competing teams.

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Key To Communities

"As a national business, Vertu is hugely proud of the connections we have developed with communities across the UK through our dealership network.

"Across the communities, football is something that brings people together, so the opportunity to join forces with the EFL and Clubs that are such an important part of life for our customers was something that was simply too good to turn down.

"We are hugely excited to be named as title sponsor of the EFL Trophy and look forward to engaging with Clubs and fans over the next three years to make the competition bigger and better than ever before."

Robert Forrester

Chief Executive of Vertu

"We are delighted to welcome Vertu as title sponsor of the EFL Trophy in a partnership that sees further investment into League One and Two clubs over the duration of the deal.

"With almost 22 million supporters coming through the turnstiles in all our competitions last year, a thriving community network and a landmark broadcast deal in place for next season which will see all Vertu Trophy fixtures broadcast live by Sky Sports, the appeal of the EFL continues to grow from strength to strength offering a unique, valuable platform for our commercial partners."