Port Adelaide 'get-out' clause required to get sponsor Renault during drugs investigation Port chairman David Koch and Keith Thomas were nervous the sponsorship deal could fall through without the clause. PORT Adelaide had to include a "get-out" clause to get the deal done with major sponsor Renault as football became engulfed by the Australian Crime Commission drugs investigation. The Power and multi-national Renault, which has committed to a long-term deal worth an estimated $1.5 million per year, had been on the cusp of finalising the sponsorship deal when the ACC dropped a bombshell on Australian sport. The investigation, which detailed links between major sports and performance enhancing drugs, was close to bringing the deal undone with Renault hesitating before becoming part of the AFL landscape. They told the Power's negotiators words to the effect: "We're about to join this code for the first time, but there now seems to be a great risk." News of the ACC probe had reached Europe, where professional cycling has suffered from the withdrawal of sponsors from its drug scandals, and Port chairman David Koch and Keith Thomas were nervous the deal could fall through. "It was at the last minute and yes, it was close (to not going ahead)," Thomas told The Advertiser. And we could understand it. It's about risk management, and we included the clause that they could review their investment as soon as there was a threat to their image. We encouraged the clause. I mean if we, as a professional sporting organisation, can't live by these rules, how can we expect anybody else in society to? Thomas expected the clause included in Port's contract with Renault to become norm in the world of sports commerce, where loyalties continue to be tested by scandals. But it was the drugs issue, that of performance enhancing drugs and systematic cheating in particular, that was on top of the list of issues the car manufacturer wanted to insure itself against.