The Worst Football Jersey Sponsors of All Time

What are the worst football jersey sponsors of all time? From Pizza Hut to Beanie Babies, we take a look at the weirdest sponsorships of all time.

Worst Football Jersey Sponsors

It’s necessary for a football club’s survival to take on jersey sponsors. These sponsorship arrangements reek of desperation though. Let’s take a look at the worst football jersey sponsors of all time.

14. Lyon – Le69

One of the funniest and worst football jersey sponsors of all time was with the partnership between Lyon and le69. Le69 was a classified ads section in the local paper with 69 being the region number for Lyon. Did they have to print the 69 so big?

13. Atletico Madrid – Columbia Pictures

You can probably tell that Atletico Madrid’s jersey sponsorship with Columbia Pictures was a desperate money grab for a club that was struggling financially at the time. From Spiderman, to Bad Boys 2 and even White Chicks, there weren’t any limits to the god awful jersey designs.

12. Hull – Flamingo Land

Hull City’s jersey sponsorship deal with Flamingo Land certainly grabbed people’s attention. It’s an anticlimax for fans when a Google search reveals its just your average zoo and theme park in Hull and so Flamingo Land ends as up as one of the worst football jersey sponsors.

11. West Brom – No Smoking

It was common for football fans to smoke in stadiums during the 80’s. West Brom banned it at the Hawthorns in 1984 which coincided with a public service sponsorship deal with West Midlands Health Authority, serving as a reminder for fans not to smoke inside the stadium.

10. Portsmouth – TY

The Portsmouth deal with TY, the makers of Beanie Babies, was an odd relationship and made for a funny jersey sponsorship deal. It’s not the sort of deal that would strike fear in the hearts of opposing teams.

9. Getafe – Burger King

You’d be forgiven for thinking Getafe players were making fast food burgers for a living. The Spanish club signed a shirt sponsorship deal with Burger King in 2009 and 10 years later, English club Stevenage did the same too.

8. Fulham – Pizza Hut

One of the worst football jersey sponsors was when Louis Saha and Co looked more like pizza delivery drivers than professional footballers with the Pizza Hut logo across the shirt front. Nevertheless it’s still a cool jersey and one of the funniest football sponsorship deals of all-time.

7. Scunthorpe – Pleasure Island

English club Scunthorpe had a disgusting looking jersey in 1994 which appears inspired by confetti at a kids party. There’s no doubt however the jersey sponsor Pleasure Island made every fan curious where the island of debauchery was. Unfortunately it was only the name of an amusement park which ended up closing in 2016.

6. AC Milan – Pooh Jeans

AC Milan’s Pooh Jeans jersey sponsorship is one of the funniest and worst football jersey sponsors of all time. Milan jerseys were emblazoned with the word “Pooh” across the front much to the delight of rival fans. Unfortunately in Italian the word doesn’t refer to human excrement and is the name of a casual jeans clothing brand.

5. Oxford United – Wang

Oxford United’s jersey sponsorship deal with Wang Laboratories is one of the funniest of all-time and seems a ridiculous sponsorship deal today. It wasn’t a deal with someone’s male anatomy. Wang was a computer company that tried to complete with IBM and Oxford won the League Cup in front of 90,000 with their Wang’s proudly on the front of their jerseys.

4. St. Johnstone FC – Bonar Textiles

One of the funny and worst football jersey sponsors of all-time was Bonar Textiles sponsoring St Johnstone FC’s. It did accurately reflect the mood of the clubs fans during the early 90s following strong top tier performances after spending some time in the lower divisions of Scotland. Bonar Textiles is a textile company, but just the word Bonar appears across the front of the jersey.

3. Deportivo Wanka – D.Wanka

Although not a sponsor, Peruvian football club Deportivo Wanka has their club name written on the front of their jersey in the form of D.Wanka. There’s an innocent and less entertaining explanation to the jersey reference with the previous inhabitants of the area known as the Wanka people which the club is named after.

2. Everton – Angry Birds

Angry Birds developer Rovio became one of the worst football jersey sponsors when they partnered with Everton in 2017 on a £1 million a season sleeve sponsorship deal. Wayne Rooney was always seen as a ticking time bomb waiting to explode so the partnership between Rooney and Red makes it one of the most funny football jersey sponsorship deals of all-time.

1. Club America – Bimbo

Multinational Mexican company Bimbo has around 200 bakery plants producing mostly bread, cookies and pastries. A bimbo is an attractive but unintelligent young woman. Club America’s shirt sponsorship deal with Bimbo formed an all-time legendary cocktail with Corona and Coke.