Premier League Shirts Row: The Fickle Fashions Of Sponsorship
21 September 2018
ShareSave
Anthony ReubenBBC Reality Check
Former Arsenal and England captain Tony Adams spoke with Radio 4's Today programme on Thursday about the prevalence of gambling business sponsoring football teams.
Asked whether he thought such sponsorship should stop, he said: "Yes definitely. I think it's time. Like the alcohol sponsorship of the past."
But actually, there is absolutely nothing to stop alcohol companies sponsoring football groups in the English Premier League - it is down to the clubs to pick their sponsors.
The Football Association has elaborate guidelines introduced in 2000 about how and where sponsorship might appear on football set.
The guidelines forbid the screen of "any distasteful, threatening, abusive, indecent, insulting, inequitable or otherwise fairly or ethically offensive message, or any political message".
However, the only products particularly forbidden from being marketed on kits are tobacco items.
Taking A Look At Premier League shirt sponsors considering that the league began in 1992 informs us a lot about mindsets to particular products and the developing economy.
Since the league started, 60% of companies sponsoring shirts have actually fallen within 4 broad categories: monetary, electronics/technology, alcohol and gaming.
Electronics/technology
When the Premier League began, it was the big customer electronic devices business that dominated the sponsorship.
Sharp would be Manchester United's sponsor till 2000 while JVC included on Arsenal's t-shirts till 1999.
In 1995-96, which was the very first season when the Premier League was down to 20 teams from the initial 22, half the clubs were sponsored by electronic devices and technology business, consisting of AST Computer at Aston Villa, Hewlett Packard at Tottenham, Brother at Manchester City and the software and IT services business Sanderson, which sponsored both Sheffield Wednesday and Southampton.
But by the start of the new millennium that had actually fallen to 3 business, and in the last 10 seasons there has been no more than one company from this classification per season.
Despite that decrease, more electronics and innovation companies have actually sponsored Premier League t-shirts than any other classification, with 94 seasons in between them.
Financial
The 2nd most typical type of t-shirt sponsor is the financial sector, with 90 seasons of t-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 offer in the very first 3 years, followed by CIS Insurance's sponsorship of Blackburn.
In the noughties, the offers began developing, with the peak in 2010-11 regardless of the financial crisis.
That year the forex 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 t-shirt sponsor, in spite of having actually been nationalised in 2008. It would remain so till January 2012, when it was changed by Virgin Money, which had purchased parts of it from the federal government. The 2010-11 season was also the year that Standard Chartered took over as Liverpool's sponsor, which it has remained ever given that.
Alcohol
The Premier League itself was sponsored by Carling from its 2nd season till 2001, called the Premiership.
Companies offering alcohols peaked reasonably early in its history, however have been practically ever-present, with only last season and this one having actually no club sponsored by a drinks company. In overall there have actually 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 went out of style in current years, with Chang Beer's 13-year handle Everton being the league's just one after 2010.
The Portman Group, which represents beverages manufacturers, has a code of practice for alcohol companies wishing to get associated with sports sponsorship.
The huge development in betting business sponsoring Premier League clubs' t-shirts followed The Gambling Act 2005 permitted them to advertise on tv and radio for the very first time.
But gambling business had actually advertised on shirts in the Premier League before then, with Betfair appearing on Fulham's t-shirts in 2002-03 and 888 sponsoring Middlesbrough in 2004-05 and 2005-06.
They have gone from strength to strength since then, and in the past 10 seasons, one-third of shirt sponsors have actually been betting business. The peak was in 2016-17, when half of clubs had a betting company as their t-shirt sponsors. There have been 79 seasons of gambling sponsorship entirely.
Labour's deputy leader Tom Watson has actually pledged that a future Labour federal government would prohibit gambling business from sponsoring Premier League teams.
The Premier League responded by telling Reality Check that its clubs had actually always made sure they followed the policies in the Gambling Act.
"We extended our own wagering guidelines, consisting of the restriction on wagering on football to anyone working for the Premier League and its clubs, and improved our monitoring of stability issues. We also remain completely committed to the marketing market's assistance on betting marketing."
Shirt sponsorship in the Premier League by betting business was estimated to have actually been worth about ₤ 50m this season. The Gambling Commission just recently advised companies of its guidelines about sponsorship.
There are more stringent guidelines for clubs' youth groups consisting entirely of players under the age of 18, which might not wear t-shirts promoting age-restricted products such as alcohol or gaming.
Replica t-shirts in junior sizes are likewise prohibited from carrying such sponsorship, so they are either made without it, similar to West Ham, or have an entirely different sponsor, just like Wolves.
Others
An honourable mention goes to telecoms companies, which were particularly well-represented at the turn of the millennium. They peaked at 6 deals in 2002-03 when O2 was sponsoring Arsenal and Vodafone appeared on Manchester United t-shirts.
Automotive business had their huge year in 1999-00, with five offers, 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 t-shirt.
These consist of Draper Tools, which sponsored Southampton in 1992-93 and the toy company Ty, well-known for cuddly dabble huge eyes, which sponsored Portsmouth for two seasons.
Waitrose was the only grocery store to sponsor a Premier League t-shirt when it appeared on the Reading set in 2012-13 while Crown Paints' three-year deal with 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 need to wait a long period of time to see a rival of Laver sponsoring a Premier League t-shirt again - it appeared on the shirts of Sheffield United in 1992-93 and 1993-94. It's a timber merchant.
What do you want BBC Reality Check to investigate? Contact us
Read more from Reality Check
Follow us on Twitter