38 Years Ago Today: Liverpool Becomes First English Pro Team with Shirt Sponsor
Jul 24, 2017, by Pat
Shirt sponsors are one of the most common things in football nowadays, but they actually haven't been around for that long. In fact, on this day 38 years ago Liverpool became the first English professional club to have one when they signed a ground-breaking agreement with Japanese company Hitachi.
A deal that was worth GBP 100,000 over two years, it allowed Hitachi to put its name on Liverpool's jerseys in all local games that weren't televised. Just two years later, in 1981, Arsenal penned a contract with JVC, another Japanese company, that was worth GBP 500,000 over three seasons.
However, whereas the Premier League easily leads the way in terms of commercialization these days, German Bundesliga side Braunschweig had debuted Jägermeister as shirt sponsor as early as in 1973, making it the first football club to do so globally.
As of today, the most valuable shirt sponsorship deal in world football is Manchester United's with Chevrolet, estimated at USD 80 million per season, followed by Barcelona / Rakuten and Chelsea / Yokohama Tyres.
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Nottingham Forest Announce Marex Front-of-Shirt Sponsorship Deal
Nottingham Forest have officially announced a multi-year Principal Partnership with global financial services platform Marex. Starting with the 26-27 season, Marex will serve as the club's new front-of-shirt sponsor, replacing gambling brand Bally's. The agreement is reported to be worth approximately £25 million over a three-year period.
The clean Marex wordmark and arrow logo will be featured across the front of the Nottingham Forest men's and women's first-team playing and replica kits, as well as the club's netball team dresses. In addition to primary kit placement, Marex will become Forest's official Global Markets Partner and exclusive provider of foreign exchange and financial services.
The announcement resolves Forest's search for a principal partner just ahead of the new Premier League campaign, following a pre-season without a front-of-shirt sponsor. The transition also aligns with the Premier League's upcoming voluntary ban on gambling companies occupying front-of-shirt sponsorship inventory.