SAINTS sponsor Flybe’s relationship with the club is “back on track” and the airline has vowed to remain as shirt sponsor next season.

Reports of an “irretrievable breakdown” in relations triggered speculation that Flybe could invoke a break clause in its sponsorship deal, but bosses are now publicly declaring their wish to be an integral part of the club.

However, they confirmed the value of the sponsorship contract will drop from the £250,000-a-year Flybe paid in the Championship.

Simon Lilley, Flybe marketing director, said: “We will definitely be with Saints next year as their main shirt sponsor regardless of what happens whether that’s liquidation or relegation.

“We are not in football sponsorship for the glory, otherwise we would be at a Premier League club.

“We want to be part of the community and Southampton are a community club and we stand by them.”

It marks a significant change in tone from early April when the airline, the biggest at Southampton Airport and Europe’s largest regional airline, felt “very poorly treated”.

Mr Lilley said: “There is no change of heart.

“We never said we would invoke any exit clause. The way we feel as sponsor is more than a name on a shirt, we feel an integral part of the club.

“We are now working closely with the administrator Mark Fry and the team and that’s very important.

“We are more than a superficial sponsor and we want to be involved in the way the club is run.

“What is done was done, and I’m not going to go into that, but the relationship is back on track.”

He confirmed the sponsorship amount will have gone down because of Saints’ relegation.

“Of course it will and that won’t come as a surprise,”

he said.

“If they had been promoted we would have paid more and if they are relegated we pay less.

“There are performance bonuses in our contract.

That’s the way football sponsorship works.”