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 program on Thursday about the frequency of gambling business sponsoring football groups.
Asked whether he thought such sponsorship needs to stop, he said: "Yes definitely. I believe it's time. Like the alcohol sponsorship of the past."
But really, 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 intricate guidelines introduced in 2000 about how and where sponsorship might appear on football set.
The guidelines restrict the screen of "any distasteful, threatening, violent, indecent, insulting, inequitable or otherwise morally or ethically offensive message, or any political message".
However, the only items particularly prohibited from being marketed on sets are tobacco items.
Taking A Look At Premier League shirt sponsors because the league started in 1992 informs us a lot about mindsets to specific items and the developing economy.
Since the league started, 60% of companies sponsoring shirts have fallen within four broad classifications: monetary, electronics/technology, alcohol and gambling.
Electronics/technology
When the Premier League began, it was the big customer electronics companies that dominated the sponsorship.
Sharp would be Manchester United's sponsor till 2000 while JVC included on Arsenal's shirts up until 1999.
In 1995-96, which was the first season when the Premier League was down to 20 groups from the original 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 company Sanderson, which sponsored both Sheffield Wednesday and Southampton.
But by the start of the brand-new centuries that had fallen to 3 companies, and in the last 10 seasons there has disappeared than one company from this category per season.
Despite that decline, more electronic devices and innovation business have sponsored Premier League t-shirts than any other classification, with 94 seasons in between them.
Financial
The second most common kind of shirt sponsor is the monetary sector, with 90 seasons of t-shirts. There has been a monetary t-shirt sponsor in the Premier League in all however one season.
But the sector did not make a strong start in the brand-new league, with Peterborough Building Society's sponsorship of Norwich City being the only offer in the first three years, followed by CIS Insurance's sponsorship of Blackburn.
In the noughties, the deals started building up, 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, regardless of having been nationalised in 2008. It would remain so till January 2012, when it was replaced by Virgin Money, which had actually bought parts of it from the government. The 2010-11 season was likewise the year that Standard Chartered took control of as Liverpool's sponsor, which it has actually stayed since.
Alcohol
The Premier League itself was sponsored by Carling from its second season until 2001, known as the FA Carling Premiership.
Companies offering alcohols peaked relatively early in its history, but have actually been almost ever-present, with only last season and this one having actually no club sponsored by a drinks company. In overall there have been 62 seasons of alcohol sponsorship.
The season with the biggest variety of alcohol sponsorship offers was 1994-95 with 6: McEwans at Blackburn, Coors at Chelsea, Carlsberg, which sponsored Liverpool for the 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 only one after 2010.
The Portman Group, which represents drinks producers, has a code of practice for alcohol business desiring to get included in sports sponsorship.
The huge development in gambling companies sponsoring Premier League clubs' t-shirts came after The Gambling Act 2005 allowed them to market on television and radio for the first time.
But gambling companies had actually promoted 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 actually gone from strength to strength ever since, and in the past 10 seasons, one-third of t-shirt sponsors have actually been betting business. The peak remained in 2016-17, when half of clubs had a betting business as their t-shirt sponsors. There have been 79 seasons of gambling sponsorship entirely.
Labour's deputy leader Tom Watson has actually vowed that a future Labour government would ban betting companies from sponsoring Premier League groups.
The Premier League responded by telling Reality Check that its clubs had actually constantly made certain they followed the in the Gambling Act.
"We extended our own wagering guidelines, consisting of the restriction on banking on football to anyone working for the Premier League and its clubs, and enhanced our monitoring of stability problems. We also remain totally committed to the marketing industry's guidance on wagering marketing."
Shirt sponsorship in the Premier League by gambling business was estimated to have been worth about ₤ 50m this season. The Gambling Commission recently reminded business of its guidelines about sponsorship.
There are more stringent guidelines for clubs' youth groups consisting totally of gamers under the age of 18, which might not use t-shirts advertising age-restricted products such as alcohol or betting.
Replica t-shirts in junior sizes are also banned from bring such sponsorship, so they are either made without it, similar to West Ham, or have an entirely different sponsor, as with Wolves.
Others
An honourable mention goes to telecoms business, which were especially well-represented at the turn of the millennium. They peaked at six handle 2002-03 when O2 was sponsoring Arsenal and Vodafone appeared on Manchester United shirts.
Automotive business had their huge year in 1999-00, with 5 deals, including Subaru at Coventry City, Autoglass at Chelsea and vehicle dealership Reg Vardy at Sunderland.
There are likewise a few interesting business in the miscellaneous column: companies that were the only representatives of their markets to sponsor a Premier League t-shirt.
These consist of Draper Tools, which sponsored Southampton in 1992-93 and the toy business Ty, well-known for cuddly dabble huge eyes, which sponsored Portsmouth for two seasons.
Waitrose was the only supermarket to sponsor a Premier League shirt when it appeared on the Reading package in 2012-13 while Crown Paints' three-year offer with Blackburn from 2008-09 was the only one of its sector, although the company also sponsored Liverpool in the old First Division.
And I believe we'll have to wait a very long time to see a rival of Laver sponsoring a Premier League t-shirt again - it appeared on the t-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