The National Football League, the multi-billion dollar enterprise which runs pro American football, has switched sides in the Cola Wars.

The latest front in the ongoing to-the-death struggle between Pepsico and Coca-Cola to dominate the soft drinks market has seen Pepsi leave Coke stranded as it runs off with the ball.

Not only is Pepsi now the official sponsor of the NFL. Tropicana, the fruit juiice company it bought in 1998, is the "official juice sponsor" too.

While none of the protagonists has revealed just how much Pepsi is pouring into pro football in exchange, the deal is likely to have been huge.

The NFL has a huge TV presence in the US, regularly racking up 120m viewers over a single weekend and thus constituting a key battleground in the Cola Wars.

Some analysts think it could be on the same scale as the $300m the Coors beer company paid the NFL to become the beer sponsor.

"We've just created the world's first tailgate party," said Pepsi chief executive Steve Reinemund, referring to the picnics often eaten out of the back of people's cars before football games.

Flat

The NFL is the second big player in a week to jump the fence.

United Airlines, the second biggest carrier in the US, decided to start carrying Pepsi instead of Coke on all its flights from May onwards, handing Pepsi an extra $25m in revenue over five years.

A drop in the ocean, perhaps, given that Pepsi turned over more than $20bn last year, but airline deals are seen as prestige, high-visibility contracts.

But Coke was adamant that it did not feel at all flat.

With the NFL contract gone, the company said it would now turn its attention to the teams themselves. Of the 32 NFL franchises, 20 already have Coke sponsorship, and Coke believes it can make just as much headway by backing them.

"Our research shows that most people don't see a distinction between being a national sponsor or being a major advertising and marketing partner," said Coke spokesman Bill Marks, "particularly at the local level."

In any case, Coke can console itself that its logo remains plastered across most of the rest of American pro sport, including the National (Ice) Hockey League, the National Basketball Association and NASCAR racing.