With the next season’s kits recently leaked, one thing was aparrent across all three designs – We have no shirt sponsor.
Fun88 have served us well, particularly with their twitter output which has been extremely amsuing. However, they’re not exactly a household name and, let’s be honest, it was their logo that ruined the out-going home shirt combining with the grandad collar to form a huge number 4 on the front of every kit.
Our new owners will be looking to maximise incoming revenue by negotiating lucrative sponsorship deals throughout the club, but of course the most prominent one is always the shirt sponsor.
Obviously people are expecting a sponsor with links to our Saudi backers, such as Aramco, Golf Saudi or Saudi Airlines, but earlier in the season, Amanda Staveley didn’t rule out non-Saudi deals. Whatever the move, it will be in the interest of the bottom line with little mind paid to how it makes us look.
If a Saudi-based company is named we need to brace ourselves for more outrage by the hypocritical media who make absolutely no mention of Aramco’s motorsport sponsorship, and would never turn down the opportunity to fly out to Saudi to cover any of the sporting events recently put on over there. How many of them will take a hard pass on a trip to Qatar for the World Cup at the end of the year?
So the big question is, would we happily endure the inevitable media outcry if we were to adopt a Saudi sponsor, or should we play it safe, especially with the change kit furore, and go for a less controversial company? Or, do you simply not care as long as it doesn’t ruin the aesthetic of the shirt?