sponsorsFootball has long been a traditional sport in the United Kingdom with the first clubs emerging around the 1850s, during the proceeding 20 years there was little regulation in regard to official rules and there were no team uniforms.  In the 1870s with the introduction of the English FA Cup and standardised FA rules, clubs also began to introduce colour schemes and uniforms for players.  In the early 1900s the traditional shirts, shorts and socks became the standardised uniform, often made from heavy cotton materials, new designs such as stripes began to appear.  The first manufacturer of football kits was Bukta, who appeared in 1879, they dominated the market until 1920 when Humphrey Brothers Clothing, which eventually became Umbro, began to take over.  After the war, in the 1950s Umbro introduced a new 'Continental style' of kit, manufactured from lighter materials and featuring v-necks, shorter length shorts and innovatively designed patterns.  In the early 1970s as Admiral entered the market of kit manufacturing it became popular for logos to appear on football tops.

It was not until the late 1970s that sponsorship deals between commercial companies and football clubs became legal, in 1976 Kettering Town signed a deal with Kettering Tyres, the FA banned the club from exhibiting the sponsor on their tops and threatened the club with a fine of £1000.   The following year in 1977 the FA backtracked and shirt sponsorship was allowed.   The first English club to secure a sponsorship deal was Derby County, they only wore the football tops featuring the Saab sponsor once for a photo shoot, Liverpool were the first club to wear a shirt featuring a sponsor during a league match, this was in 1979 with the sponsor Hitachi.  Sponsorship was initially extremely unpopular and up until 1983 television companies refused to broadcast matches that featured clubs wearing football tops with sponsors on.

During the 1980s most clubs began to seek out sponsorship deals, this is still today an extremely lucrative business in which clubs earn large sums of money, during the 2012/13 season the total sponsorship for all the clubs in the English Premier League totalled a staggering £147m.  One club that has until recently steered clear of commercial sponsorship is Barcelona football club, in 2006 the club agreed a deal in which it would donate 1.5m Euros to Unicef, finally in 2011 Barcelona submitted to sponsorship in a deal with the Qatar foundation, the deal worth an astounding 150m Euros let the club exhibit the charitable Qatar Foundation logo on their kits for the first two years, from this season for the first ever time the Barcelona football tops are adorned with the commercial sponsorship of Qatar Airways.

Premier League football teams appear to have no problem recruiting sponsors in comparison to clubs in other European leagues, with six out of the top ten most expensive sponsorship deals taking place for English clubs.  Manchester United have recently signed a deal worth £357m over seven years with Chevrolet, they are to sponsor the clubs tops from the 2014/15 season, this is the largest ever football sponsorship deal to take place.

What do you think of the large monetary value of today's sponsorship deals?

Do you think sponsorship has enhanced the game?

Visit the Soccer Box website where you can order football tops from clubs around the globe.