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The greatest football shirt sponsors of all time

A decent sponsor gives a football shirt character. Take it away and you’re left with something that looks as though it belongs in the bargain bin at JD Sports, the kind of kit you and your mates would wear in a 5-a-side league. Don’t believe us? Take a look at some of our favourite shirt sponsors of all time. These sponsors definitely belong on the best football kits ever.

 

Watching top level footballers for 90 minutes should inspire us slobs to get into shape right? Wrong. Getafe had the right idea in the 2009/10 season when they adopted Burger King as their logo. Nothing says ‘elite athlete’ like a greasy cheeseburger. The best thing about it? If you put the shirt over your head, there was a picture of The King himself inside.

 

 

Speaking of Whoppers, what were Oxford United and St Johnstone thinking when they agreed to these sponsorship deals?

 

 

Rather than a derogatory slur towards women, Bimbo is apparently a type of bread in Mexico and Club America had no qualms about endorsing them.

 

 

Shirt sponsors can be a force for good, a notion readily embraced by the West Midlands Health Organisation in the mid-1980s who put ‘no smoking’ signs on West Brom’s shirts. Unfortunately nobody would have looked at the sponsor due to being distracted by the glorious moustache on display above it.

 

 

Sponsors were once confined to the front of the shirt but Everton took it to the next level after renting out their sleeves to a video game. It was appropriate as well, with Rooney having experienced his fair share of Angry Birds.

 

 

We could have devoted an entire article to Atletico Madrid’s 2003/04 effort, when they were sponsored by film production company ‘Columbia Pictures’. The logo would change on a weekly basis to promote a variety of upcoming films, including such classics as Spanglish, Hitch, Hellboy and the enticingly named ‘Gigolo Europeo’.

 

 

We’ve cheated here by using a kit manufacturer rather than a sponsor. However, when the Cockney rhyming slang spouting West Ham unveiled a kit produced by ‘Pony’ in the 1998/99 season, it caused much amusement. Fortunately for the Hammers, it didn’t prove to be accurate as a young Frank Lampard and Rio Ferdinand led them to fifth in the Premier League.

 

 

Two seasons earlier, Everton had their own rhyming issues when agreeing a sponsorship deal with fax machine manufacturer ‘Danka’. Full kit Danka?

 

 

Still at least Everton’s sponsor only rhymed with a rude word. Imagine if a team out there actually printed the word itself across their shirt in huge letters! Although it’s not as if there’s a team out there called Deportivo Wan… Oh God.

 

 

In 1994/95 Scunthorpe’s away kit was a thing of beauty. In the middle of the alluring multi-coloured pattern sat a sponsorship deal with the mysteriously-named Pleasure Island. After extensive research we can confirm that Pleasure Island was a theme park and not, as it sounds, a brothel. Because surely nobody would sink that low.

 

 

Or would they? In fact, yes, they definitely would. In 2012, Greek side Voukefala unveiled a pink home shirt adorned, front and back, with the logos of Larissa’s premier brothel. That’s certainly one way to motivate your players.

 

 

In 2003 Newcastle were sponsored by the ultimately doomed Northern Rock. A formerly huge, financially powerful institution with a vast customer base who would ultimately be run into the ground by grievous mismanagement, being sponsored by Northern Rock.

 

 

Finally we head to Milan. When you think of Italy you think of style, class and panache. It’s a country famous for fashion designers, producing brands as Versace, Armani, Valentina, Fendi, Gucci, Prada and… Pooh Jeans?

 

 

So there we have it, 14 exceptional reasons to #SaveOurSponsors.

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