Hands up – last month, we asked a question on Twitter without having a specific enough answer.
To be fair, the answer we had in our head wasn’t wrong, it just wasn’t the best one or the only one.
For the DFB Pokal (German Cup), all teams wear the Volkswagen logo on the left sleeve. As Borussia Dortmund normally have Opel in that position, it meant swapping one car-maker for another (the have a different kit for cup competitions, too).
However, Don Hanley had an answer which left our one looking quite inferior.
Pleasingly, Stuttgart keep things local with their main sponsor, which luckily happens to be the financial side of one of the most prestigious car marques in the world. They also play in the Mercedes-Benz Arena (in a similar vein, we’d love to see an adidas-made Bayern Munich kit sponsored by BMW for the ultimate in Bavarian-ness).
On their left sleeve in the Bundesliga is the logo of Gazí, a producer of Mediterranean milk specialities, but for their only cup outing this season, a 2-0 loss away to Hansa Rostock, they had both the three-pointed MB star and the VW logo.
Incidentally, Wolfsburg have Volkswagen as their primary sponsor so for the cup they doubled up with the branding.
We can’t think of any British examples of this phenomenon – while Liverpool had Carlsberg in the period when the Premier League was sponsored by Carling, sleeve patches never had the Carling logo (we do recall advertising boards at Anfield being devoid of the Carling wordmark, though).
Was any club sponsored by a bank when Barclays were the title sponsor? Let us know by commenting below or on Twitter @museumofjerseys.
“Was any club sponsored by a bank when Barclays were the title sponsor?”
Liverpool again, with Standard Chartered (asterisk as it’s not a “high Street bank”)
Liverpool wore Worthington Cup final sleeve patches in 2001 and 2003 and Carling Cup final sleeve patches in 2005, on Carlsberg-sponsored shirts! Ditto Spurs with Holsten in the 2002 Worthington Cup final.
One could say Newport County in this season’s FA Cup, more so that it’s not mandated by the competition’s sponsor. Their kits are made by FBT but their Cup sleeve sponsor is Luke 1977 who, despite primarily being a fashion label, currently make Aston Villa’s kits.
“Was any club sponsored by a bank when Barclays were the title sponsor?”
Newcastle United, Northern Rock (i know its name says Building Society but it technically became a bank after demutualising in 1997)
half the clubs in the championship have betting logos on their shirts and Sky bet on the sleeve patches
Good point Eddie!