Unexpected Sponsors of European Football Leagues

Football to Basketball to Hockey, whatever the sport is, they are all heavily dependent on sponsorship. Every company wants to put itself out there for the world to see, and these sports entities are just the perfect fit.

So, it is no surprise that companies are ready to cough out huge money to players to partner with teams and players. For instance, the most popular New Jersey NFL players have quite a handful of companies working with them, some of them even after having retired from active sports.

This is not a surprising thing because these sports teams and players give them the popularity they need, and in the world we live in today, popularity equals more money.   The European football league is no exception to this. Just as it happens in every sport, the teams and players have a plethora of sponsors, and over time some companies have become a constant in the sports space, having a partnership with different clubs.

However, there are some sponsors no one would ever think would have a partnership with European leagues. Some of these partnerships sounded funny, some were weird, and some came with some controversy. Let’s take a look at some of them:

Herbalife

If an energy drink company partners with a football league, that is understandable right? But if it’s a company that produces dietary supplements, doesn’t that sound a bit off? Well, that was precisely what happened in the German Bundesliga in 2013.

Herbalife, a company that produced dietary supplements, sponsored the league. Of course, this could have sat down better with most fans. To make matters worse, there were claims that their products were potentially harmful.

Tsingtao

In 2019, Tsingtao, a Chinese beer brand, had a sponsorship deal with the English Premier League. Usually, nothing should be surprising about this, and we have brands like Budweiser and Carlsberg having deals across many leagues in Europe. But the fact that this was a Chinese brand makes it surprising when we consider the strained relationship between the English Premier League and the Chinese government due to political tension.

Selenella

Selenella, a company that produces condoms, was the sponsor of the Italian Serie A in the 90s. Who would have considered the possibility of this happening? During this stint of partnership, the Serie A was referred to as Selenella Serie A.

Cinch

In the 2020-2021 season, the Scottish Premiership was sponsored by Cinch. A company which was a car buying website. This may sound normal to some, but the partnership caused quite some controversy. Many fans were displeased and were vocal in voicing their displeasure. They wondered what connection the company had with football. Well, maybe they must remember that it’s all about the dough.

Socios

In 2021, Italian club Juventus signed a sponsorship deal with the blockchain-based fan token platform Socios.com. This was unexpected, and no one thought of that. Not only was it surprising, but it was also the beginning of a trend of football clubs embracing cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, especially with a lot of skepticism about the stability of these digital currencies.

Conclusion

What is being termed as unusual will gradually be seen as usual. For instance, there was a time when a sponsorship deal between airlines and football clubs would have been considered unique, but that is not so today. More and more companies from different industries are willing to land a sponsorship with European due to these leagues’ extensive coverage. So, we can only expect more unusual partnerships in years to come.