In recent years we have seen everything on shirts: from the main leagues to amateurs, this is how clubs invent new marketing strategies. In Italy the first was Udinese, who gave space to Nino the painter
There’s a funeral home, a cannabis company and an adult film star. As if that wasn’t enough, here’s also a dating house and an escort site, as well as a particularly lucky painter. And it’s not a joke, but an amused look at the most absurd sponsorships of football teams. Just think that in our Serie D the Athletic Club Palermo is branded Escort Advisor…
ATHLETIC CLUB PALERMO
—
Last May, Athletic Palermo wrote history by landing in Serie D for the first time. There was something to celebrate and the best idea came from the Sicilians’ sponsor, namely… Escort Advisor. The popular red light service has prepared the most popular gift for players: a season ticket for the whole team. Thus President Conte: “Seeing the surprised and amused faces of the players for such a gift is a moment that I will remember from this season”.
RUTHERFORD RAIDERS
—
In 2014, the Kent university students came up with a historic stunt: Pornhub was written on their shirts. But how, the site for adults? Him. The problem is that the university spokesperson takes it very badly: on the uniforms the “sponsor” remains the time of a cat on the ring road, because “out of place and absolutely inappropriate”.
VOUKEFALAS
—
In Greece, 2012 is not exactly the year of the economic boom, on the contrary. You have to make do as you can even on a sporting level, as Voukefas does, a team from Larissa that floats in the slums of Greek football. Money is missing, not imagination: the president concludes the agreement with “Soula”. A Greek relative of the Roma striker? Not really: a city brothel.
WIENER VIKTORIA
—
Austrian third division, in Vienna they come up with a pretty good sponsor. It is “Flowery Field” a company that produces cannabis for medical purposes. Surreal? Not too much, as president Zeisel says: “If you think that the best clubs are linked to bookmakers and brewers, it’s not so strange.”
UDINESE
—
But who is Nino the painter? Many will have asked themselves this at the Olimpico during Roma-Udinese. The Friulians choose a special sponsorship following the Dacia Sponsor Day competition. The winner is a painter from Domodossola, Michael Nino, and the Bianconeri dedicate the shirt to him. Who knows, maybe for his activity it was like winning a championship.
PALIOPYRGOS
—
Revolutionary ideas are coming from Greece, one sensed. However, brothels have nothing to do with this, on the contrary. Paliopyrgos shows up on the pitch with a black shirt and a crucifix: it happens, if the sponsor is a funeral home…
OBERWURZBACH
—
Have you ever heard of Lena Nitro? His name, in recent years, has bounced around adult sites and… an Austrian amateur team. Oberwurzbach, in fact, who managed to snatch a curious sponsorship agreement from her.
EVERTON
—
It’s not just amateurs here. In 2017 Everton sharpens their wits and shakes hands with Rovio Entertainment, a curious idea is born: why not stick the Angry Birds logo on the shirts? The English accept, the sponsor debuts on the shirt with a heavy defeat against Manchester United. And mockery rains down on the Toffees on social media. Not bad: a year later three Everton players such as Walcott, Tosun and Sigurdsson were even included in the new video game.
WEST BROMWICH ALBION
—
In 1984 the English accepted the idea of the West Midlands Health Organization which proposed them to play with a “no smoking” sign on their shirts. The WBA kept the kit for two years, but it didn’t perform very well: in 1986 it was painfully relegated to the second division.
FLUMINENSE DE FEIRA
—
Let’s go back to the depths of the Amateurs, this time in Brazil. The idea is a brilliant combo: since a supermarket sponsors the fourth-series team, discounted prices appear on the shirts instead of shirt numbers. And, instead of names, players wear the type of product on offer on their shoulders!
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED