In January 1976, non-league football club Kettering Town became the first in British football to have their shirts sponsored. The deal, worth a reported four figure sum, was with local firm Kettering Tyres whose logo was proudly printed onto the front of players’ shirts. Since then, most clubs have recruited sponsors and the money involved has escalated. In 2017, the shirt sleeve even became a source of further sponsorship opportunity, allowing a player to promote more than one brand as he puts in a cross. 

Premier League clubs that sit at the top of English football are able to drive especially good deals. More than 1.4 billion people around the world identify as fans of one of these clubs and 3.2 billion watch them on TV over the course of a season. For sponsors, the association enhances their profile enormously. 

Yet not all deals work out well for the sponsor. In an echo of the “stadium curse” that strikes US stadium sponsors, shirt sponsors often perform badly once an agreement has…