NEW YORK, April 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Major League Soccer and Capital One announced today they have signed a partnership that makes Capital One the exclusive credit card issuer of MLS and its 12 member teams. The card will be available to MLS fans this summer.

"Major League Soccer is excited to welcome Capital One to the MLS commercial family," said MLS Executive Vice President Paul Phipps. "We anticipate a great interest from our fans to be able to personally identify themselves with their favorite MLS team and look forward to a mutually beneficial relationship."

Capital One receives the rights to exclusive onsite promotion at all regular-season MLS games, playoffs, All-Star Game and MLS Cup. As a corporate partner of MLS, Capital One will also be entitled to the various marketing and promotional rights of being a member of the MLS corporate family, including use of MLS and team marks, tickets and player appearances, advertisements in MLS publications, field boards and Internet site links.

"At Capital One, creating quality products and providing the best service for our customers is our top priority," said Peter Schnall, Capital One's Senior Vice President of Marketing and Analysis. "We're thrilled to be joining forces with MLS to create a winning team to provide a credit card that all Major League Soccer fans will be proud to carry."

Capital One joins the MLS corporate family including: Official Sponsors -- Aquafina, Budweiser, Honda, Kellogg's, MasterCard, New York Life, Pepsi, Snickers and Yahoo!; Official Suppliers -- adidas, Atletica, Kappa, Nike and Umbro; Corporate Partners -- Best Foods and LEGO; and Suppliers -- ACE, Allsport Photography, Awards.com, Kwik Goal and Official Sports International.

Headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia, Capital One Financial Corporation (www.CapitalOne.com) is a holding company whose principal subsidiaries, Capital One Bank and Capital One, F.S.B., offer consumer lending products. Capital One's subsidiaries collectively had 25.3 million accounts and $20.3 billion in managed loans outstanding as of March 31, 2000. Capital One is one of the major financial services providers on the Internet, with on-line credit card approvals, on-line retail deposits and a growing number of customers serviced on-line. Capital One trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "COF" and is included in the Standard & Poor's 500 index. Capital One was also ranked by Business Week as one of the Top 50 Best Performers of the S & P 500 index from March 1, 1999 to March 1, 2000 (March 27, 2000 issue).

Celebrating its fifth season in 2000, Major League Soccer features many top stars from the United States and around the world, and is America's only Division I outdoor professional soccer league. The twelve teams that comprise MLS are: the Chicago Fire, Colorado Rapids, Columbus Crew, Dallas Burn, D.C. United, Kansas City Wizards, Los Angeles Galaxy, MetroStars, Miami Fusion, New England Revolution, San Jose Earthquakes and the Tampa Bay Mutiny. SOURCE Capital One Financial Corporation

CONTACT: Catherine Philbin of Major League Soccer, 212-450-1266; or Dana Cilluffo of Capital One, 703-289-6811/