The last 25 years of the Premier League (which itself represented a bookend between one footballing era and another) have brought with them various shifts from one trend to another. Barely a dozen foreign players kicked off the inaugural season, only for the Foreign Influx™ to kick in around 1996, and now we’re looking for proven Englishmen down the back of our collective sofa. Off the field, the trickle of cash has turned into a torrent (remember the football bubble bursting? That was fun) which dictates title races and transfer sagas.
Away from transfer fees and social media, one niche aspect of football that has been quietly keeping pace with the gravy train all this time. In fact, you could argue that it has accurately reflected the state of play ever since 1992. We’re talking about shirt sponsors.
Broadly speaking - we’ll get into the ten-gold nuts and bolts of it shortly - the brands emblazoned on the front of Premier League shirts have gradually shifted from things you can hold (or, at least, plug in to the wall) eat or drink, to intangible, impenetrable things whose primary business you’d have to spend five minutes on Google just to establish.
The reason for this is painfully obvious - those foreign signings have never come cheap - but it is worth examining the journey that shirt sponsorship has taken: from homely to corporate, from local to global.
Electronics
Back in 1992/93, eight of the 22 top-flight sides’ torsos were sponsored by electronics companies: specifically home computing, printers and copiers. JVC, NEC, Sharp and Brother ensured a sizeable Japanese representation, perhaps driving partisan purchasing of fridges on Merseyside and VCRs in north London.
In 2017/18 - thanks, in part, to Netflix finally killing off the DVD players - not a single Premier League club is proudly sponsored by something you might need batteries for (not even West Ham).
Beer
Once among the original Premier League stalwarts - Holsten, McEwan’s Lager, Labatt’s - the beer brands have drifted away from the chests of elite footballers as a new era of ultra-professionalism took hold.
Alcohol brands were at the mercy of some European technicalities, too - English clubs playing away ties in France, for example, were notably forced to go sponsorless. Since Carlsberg ended their decade-long association with Liverpool in 2010, only Everton now fly the flag for boozers everywhere with Chang - unless Newcastle’s new sponsor Fun88 is some sort of absinthe-based tipple.
Building societies
Like banks, but for kids. You knew where you stood with building society sponsors: quite literally, in fact, with Norwich & Peterborough (Norwich, 1992-95), the West Bromwich Building Society (West Brom, amazingly) and the Derbyshire Building Soci….ah, you get the idea.
A notable victim of the more outward-looking Premier League, though, the humble building society has fallen by the wayside 25 years later, as Brighton proudly march into the top flight with American Express, Liverpool advertise the multinational Standard Chartered, and the cost of Leicester’s shirt sleeves in 2017/18 will be covered by Siam Commercial Bank. A brief dalliance with the high-interest payday loan vultures has, for the moment at least, passed.
Cars
Apart from US behemoth Chevrolet muscling their way into Old Trafford in 2014, there hasn’t been a car brand on a Premier League shirt since Aston Villa and the now liquidated Rover in 2004. Before that, Coventry (Peugeot, Subaru) had almost single-handedly kept the car industry hanging on in the top flight, unless you count Sunderland’s Reg Vardy and West Ham’s Dagenham Motors, which we really should.
In the 21st century, though, it’s all about airlines, luxury or otherwise. Since Rover were dropped by Aston Villa 13 years ago, no fewer than 10 flight operators - including the now immovable Emirates and Etihad - have landed in the Premier League.
Crisps
All that early beer needed some snacks to go with it: Leicester called upon local crisp giants Walkers for a few years in the mid-90s, before Wolves spent a season in the Greatest League in the World with “DORITOS” on the front of their shirts.
Satisfying carbohydrates have otherwise been hard to come by - Fulham’s Pizza Hut delivery in 2001 aside - and despite the efforts of Neteller (Crystal Palace, not Nutella) it has been 13 long years since a Premier League club has been sponsored by something it’s advisable to put in your mouth.
Radio stations
Broadcasters - indeed, any form of entertainment providers - have been conspicuous by their absence for almost the entire history of the Premier League. Queens Park Rangers kicked things off promisingly by partnering with Classic FM in 1992/93, the most middle-class sponsor of a club with blue-and-white hooped shirts until Reading rocked up with Waitrose 15 years later.
Now, with the concept of TV channels becoming increasingly outdated, perhaps it’s time for the Netflixes and the Spotifys of this world to get involved. For the moment, Southampton continue to defy the Sky billions by going with Virgin Media. Perhaps they’re just happy with their current package.
Mobile phone companies
The story of mobile phone-related kit sponsorship in the Premier League (now there’s a 2:2-worthy dissertation idea) is neither murky nor dramatic: but it is mildly confusing.
Middlesbrough were the first to break away from the photocopier and printer drudgery in 1995 with BT Cellnet, who commandeered not just their shirts but their entire stadium. The same operation would graduate to the chests of Arsenal’s Invincibles, but now rebranded as O2.
Meanwhile, Mercury One2One - in retrospect, the oldest-sounding mobile phone company imaginable - sponsored Everton from 1997-2002, only to return as the shiny T-Mobile with West Brom a few seasons later.
Fascinating? No. Vital to completing a top 10? Unquestionably.
Fashion
Not since Leeds ran out with “TOP MAN” on their shirts in 1990/91 has an even semi-credible fashion brand been happy to visibly associate itself with the top flight. Dr. Martens sponsored West Ham in 1999/00, four years before flirting with bankruptcy.
It’s been almost a decade since any clothing brand took the logical step of shirt sponsorship in the top division - Reebok and JJB were presumably no-brainers for Bolton and Wigan in the late 2000s.
Games consoles
From the good (Chelsea’s Commodore/Amiga deal in the early 1990s) to the bad (Arsenal and the dreadful Dreamcast, 1999-2002).
OPE Sports, Fun88, Letou, 138.com...the list is dispiritingly long. 45% of Premier League shirts this season will be promoting the mostly hopeless pursuit of online fortunes.
Quaint miscellanea
Among all the multinational corporations at the cutting edge of electronics, communications and finance of the last 25 years, there have been some refreshingly throwaway one-offs along the way.
Aston Villa’s association with yoghurt giants Müller coincided with UEFA Cup heroics against the mighty Inter Milan. Portsmouth marked their first taste of Premier League football in 2003 by teaming up with the Ty Inc. - the world’s largest producer of stuffed animal toys - during a time when their kit was being made by “Pompey Sport”.
Finally, tantalisingly, Hull denied the Premier League its greatest-ever shirt sponsor (with apologies to Doritos) when they upgraded to Kenyan gambling outfit SportPesa from...Flamingo Land.
