The England football team has lost its £20 million Nationwide sponsorship.

Building society Nationwide is dropping its sponsorship of the England football team, after its offer of renewal at £20 million was refused by the Football Association (FA) just before the World Cup.

It had offered to extend the partnership for another four years, but this had been turned down by the FA, which was confident of England making an impact in the World Cup and keen to attract a more lucrative offer – at least £10-20 million more.

A Nationwide spokesperson said: “Nationwide’s sponsorship of the England team has been extremely successful over 11 seasons and has significantly raised the profile of our organisation.

“Our current sponsorship deal ends at the end of July and it is unlikely to be renewed.”

However, Nationwide had in fact been criticised by some of its 15 million members for continuing to pay the sponsorship despite the financial crisis. In May, the group said that underlying profits for the year to April had fallen 46% to £212m, largely due to a £128m rise in bad debts on a £12bn book of commercial loans.

England was beaten in the first knock-out stage of the World Cup in South Africa with a 4-1 defeat to Germany – something of an embarrassment, and not the outcome the FA hoped for.

It is now facing substantial criticism for risking the contract on the hope of England success, and now faces a tough challenge to find a new sponsor – hiring sports agency IMG to help. Talks are thought to have been held with companies including Blackberry, O2, Facebook and Orange.

Fortunately for the FA, it last month managed to secure a one-year extension from FA Cup sponsor E.ON, which had previously announced it was ending the deal this summer as part of a “change in sponsorship strategy”.

The FA also has McDonald’s on board until 2013, while Carlsberg and Nivea have also signed four-year deals this year.

Nationwide, which has sponsored the Football League in the past, is expected to retain its deals with the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish football teams.