Today is Football Shirt Friday – the day on which football supporters everywhere don their favourite man-made fibres in support of the Bobby Moore Fund for Cancer Research UK…
Many will be wearing old-school kits that are uncluttered with the capitalist stamp of shirt sponsors. These wearable adverts often ruin perfectly decent shirts with their flagrant commercialism.
However, you do get the odd sponsor that not only fails to bastardise a classic shirt but actually manages to enhance the design – sometimes even becoming as iconic as the jersey itself.
Here we look back at a few of football’s most congruous and cool shirt sponsors…
Newcastle United and Newcastle Brown Ale:
Not only did this union bring together a much-loved local brand with the football club, but it just looks dead cool. A deep blue star with a silhouetted scene of the city – perfect.
Manchester United and Sharp:
Not only were the Japanese electronics giants adorned on the kit during some of the most historic moments in United’s history, but ‘sharp’ was beautifully apt for so much of the dazzling football that they played.
Arsenal and O2:
Many will take exception to this and forever associate JVC with Arsenal, especially after 1989. But the Invincibles were adorned by O2 and it just works. A circle for perfection; a big zero for the number of defeats.
Ajax Amsterdam and ABN-AMRO Bank:
Such is the gorgeous simplicity of the Ajax shirt that pretty much any shirt sponsor would spoil it. But ABN-AMRO made it work. The 90-degree positioning, the incredibly simplistic Ariel-style font. It was neat and respectful.
Barcelona and __________:
For so long, the sacred Blaugrana jersey remained unadorned with company names. In 2011, UNICEF was named a charitable sponsor that many felt would open the door for corporate successors.
So it proved in 2013, when Qatar Airways become Barca’s first commercial shirt sponsor. For Mes Que €35m A Year.
