The Bundesliga of Germany began its full-fledged European professional football shirt sponsorship. After Yegermeister, also known as Yakju, became a shirt sponsor for Eintracht Braunschweig in 1973, other Bundesliga teams signed one after another. Shirt sponsorship has thus become a new business model for modern football. We have entered an era where businesses can use soccer clubs solely for commercial gain.
After successfully settling in Germany, the shirt sponsorship landed in England across the sea. The first club to try this in England was Kettering Town, which belongs to the Southern League (the 7th to 8th divisions that also include semi-professional and amateur clubs). Kettering Town signed a shirt sponsorship agreement with Kettering Tyres, a local tire manufacturer.
In January 1976, with the tire company's name engraved on its chest, Kettering Town made its debut shirt sponsorship match against Bath City. However, shirt sponsorship has stirred controversy in England as well as in Germany. The English Football Association (FA) ordered that the name of Kettering's shirt sponsor be removed.
Kettering Town had no choice but to follow the FA's decision and came up with a trick. He replaced Tyres (British spelling of Tyres) on his shirt with the initial T. And he explained that the T here means Town, not Tyres. However, such a trick could not have worked. The FA has announced that if the shirt is not erased immediately, they will be fined £1,000. Kettering Town's first attempt failed.
Derek Dogan, a well-known soccer player, was the CEO of Kettering at the time. Dogan used his network to spread the legitimacy of shirt sponsorship to other clubs and won the support of Bolton Wanderers and Derby County. Dogan continued to demand that the FA allow shirt sponsorship as he grew in power. Eventually, the FA could no longer ignore the trend of sponsorship through continental European clubs. The FA allowed shirt sponsorship before the 1977–78 season, but ironically, Kettering Town did not find a sponsor this time.
The first top-tier club to introduce sponsorship for a shirt in the U.K. came from Scotland, not England. The main character was Hibernian, who was based in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. The club, also known by its nickname Hibs, signed a shirt sponsorship contract with Bucta, a clothing company, in 1977. However, TV stations threatened not to broadcast the game if Hibs wore a shirt with a sponsorship logo on it, and the club had no choice but to produce a second shirt without the sponsorship logo. 스포츠토토
Liverpool was the first professional soccer team in England to introduce shirt sponsorship. Liverpool signed a three-year contract with Hitachi, a Japanese home appliance company, for £100,000 just before the start of the new season in the summer of 1979. Liverpool, the most successful club in the league at the time, drew much attention when it decided to advertise its shirts. However, there was a shocking fact hidden in Liverpool's pioneering move that changed the commercial landscape of English football.