Premier League Shirts Row: The Fickle Fashions Of Sponsorship
21 September 2018
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Anthony ReubenBBC Reality Check
Former Arsenal and England captain spoke with Radio 4's Today programme on Thursday about the prevalence of betting companies sponsoring football groups.
Asked whether he believed such sponsorship must stop, he said: "Yes definitely. I think it's time. Like the alcohol sponsorship of the past."
But actually, there is nothing to stop alcohol companies sponsoring football teams in the English Premier League - it is down to the clubs to pick their sponsors.
The Football Association has detailed rules introduced in 2000 about how and where sponsorship may appear on football package.
The guidelines restrict the screen of "any horrible, threatening, abusive, indecent, insulting, inequitable or otherwise morally or morally offensive message, or any political message".
However, the only items particularly forbidden from being marketed on kits are tobacco products.
Looking at Premier League shirt sponsors given that the league started in 1992 tells us a lot about attitudes to specific products and the developing economy.
Since the league started, 60% of companies sponsoring t-shirts have actually fallen within four broad classifications: financial, electronics/technology, alcohol and gambling.
Electronics/technology
When the Premier League began, it was the big customer electronics business that dominated the sponsorship.
Sharp would be Manchester United's sponsor up until 2000 while JVC included on Arsenal's t-shirts till 1999.
In 1995-96, which was the first season when the Premier League was down to 20 teams from the original 22, half the clubs were sponsored by electronic devices and innovation business, including AST Computer at Aston Villa, Hewlett Packard at Tottenham, Brother at Manchester City and the software application and IT services company Sanderson, which sponsored both Sheffield Wednesday and Southampton.
But by the start of the new millennium that had fallen to three business, and in the last 10 seasons there has been no more than one company from this category per season.
Despite that decline, more electronic devices and innovation business have actually sponsored Premier League shirts than any other classification, with 94 seasons in between them.
Financial
The second most common type of t-shirt sponsor is the financial sector, with 90 seasons of shirts. There has been a financial shirt sponsor in the Premier League in all however one season.
But the sector did not make a strong start in the new league, with Peterborough Building Society's sponsorship of Norwich City being the only deal in the very first three years, followed by CIS Insurance's sponsorship of Blackburn.
In the noughties, the offers started developing, with the peak in 2010-11 regardless of the monetary crisis.
That year the foreign exchange broker FXPro sponsored both Fulham and Aston Villa (it now sponsors Watford) while Wonga was the sponsor for Blackpool's only season in the Premier League.
Northern Rock was Newcastle United's shirt sponsor, despite having actually been nationalised in 2008. It would stay so till January 2012, when it was changed by Virgin Money, which had bought parts of it from the federal government. The 2010-11 season was likewise the year that Standard Chartered took over as Liverpool's sponsor, which it has remained ever because.
Alcohol
The Premier League itself was sponsored by Carling from its second season until 2001, understood as the FA Carling Premiership.
Companies selling alcoholic beverages peaked fairly early in its history, however have actually been almost ever-present, with only last season and this one having actually no club sponsored by a beverages company. In overall there have been 62 seasons of alcohol sponsorship.
The season with the biggest number of alcohol sponsorship offers was 1994-95 with 6: McEwans at Blackburn, Coors at Chelsea, Carlsberg, which sponsored Liverpool for the very first 18 years of the Premier League, Newcastle Brown at Newcastle, Labatt's at Nottingham Forest and Holsten at Spurs.
Alcohol sponsorship headed out of fashion over the last few years, with Chang Beer's 13-year handle Everton being the league's just one after 2010.
The Portman Group, which represents drinks producers, has a code of practice for alcohol companies wanting to get included in sports sponsorship.
The huge growth in gambling companies sponsoring Premier League clubs' shirts followed The Gambling Act 2005 enabled them to market on television and radio for the very first time.
But betting business had actually marketed on shirts in the Premier League before then, with Betfair appearing on Fulham's shirts in 2002-03 and 888 sponsoring Middlesbrough in 2004-05 and 2005-06.
They have actually gone from strength to strength ever since, and in the past 10 seasons, one-third of t-shirt sponsors have been betting companies. The peak remained in 2016-17, when half of clubs had a betting company as their shirt sponsors. There have actually been 79 seasons of betting sponsorship completely.
Labour's deputy leader Tom Watson has pledged that a future Labour federal government would prohibit betting business from sponsoring Premier League groups.
The Premier League responded by telling Reality Check that its clubs had constantly ensured they followed the policies in the Gambling Act.
"We extended our own betting guidelines, consisting of the prohibition on banking on football to anyone working for the Premier League and its clubs, and improved our monitoring of stability concerns. We also stay totally devoted to the marketing market's guidance on betting marketing."
Shirt sponsorship in the Premier League by betting companies was estimated to have actually been worth about ₤ 50m this season. The Gambling Commission recently advised business of its rules about sponsorship.
There are more stringent rules for clubs' youth teams consisting totally of players under the age of 18, which might not wear shirts advertising age-restricted items such as alcohol or gambling.
Replica shirts in junior sizes are likewise prohibited from carrying such sponsorship, so they are either made without it, just like West Ham, or have a totally different sponsor, as with Wolves.
Others
An honourable mention goes to telecoms business, which were especially well-represented at the turn of the centuries. They peaked at six deals in 2002-03 when O2 was sponsoring Arsenal and Vodafone appeared on Manchester United t-shirts.
Automotive companies had their huge year in 1999-00, with 5 deals, consisting of Subaru at Coventry City, Autoglass at Chelsea and cars and truck dealership Reg Vardy at Sunderland.
There are also a couple of interesting companies in the various column: companies that were the only representatives of their industries to sponsor a Premier League shirt.
These consist of Draper Tools, which sponsored Southampton in 1992-93 and the toy company Ty, well-known for cuddly dabble big eyes, which sponsored Portsmouth for 2 seasons.
Waitrose was the only supermarket to sponsor a Premier League shirt when it appeared on the Reading kit in 2012-13 while Crown Paints' three-year handle Blackburn from 2008-09 was the only one of its sector, although the business also sponsored Liverpool in the old First Division.
And I believe we'll have to wait a long time to see a rival of Laver sponsoring a Premier League t-shirt once again - it appeared on the shirts of Sheffield United in 1992-93 and 1993-94. It's a wood merchant.
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