In football, sponsorships are like tattoos. Done right, they become iconic, forever carved in memory, like Pirelli on Inter Milan’s jersey or Sharp on those glorious ‘90s Manchester United kits.
For every Sharp, there’s a shadow. A strange, sometimes laughable, always unforgettable name that somehow made it onto a professional club’s jersey and left us all wondering; how did this happen?
Sponsorships are more than business. They’re identity. They become a club’s second skin.
They are supposed to add value, prestige, maybe a little extra swagger. Over the years, we’ve seen clubs get into bed with some of the most ridiculous, mismatched, and downright head-scratching sponsors imaginable. From payday lenders to baked potato trams, from lollipops to bankrupt airlines; this list has it all.
Because sometimes football jersey don’t just make you proud. Sometimes, they make you ask, “Who the hell approved this?”
1. Spudbros – Preston North End
There’s hometown charm, and then there’s two lads in a potato tram sponsoring a football club kind of charm. Spudbros, a TikTok-powered jacket potato business run by Harley and Jacob Nelson, somehow ended up as the official sponsor of Preston North End
It’s the kind of story that would warm your heart, if it weren’t splashed across the back of a football jersey.
The design itself feels like a university group project gone rogue.
A fried potato-themed logo with zero synergy with the shirt’s aesthetic, squeezed on like a last-minute sticker. You want to root for the brothers, but their brand doesn’t belong in the testosterone-soaked gladiator pit of the Championship. It belongs on a food truck.
2 Burger King – Getafe
You’d think Burger King would know how to market to the masses. But their 2009/10 sponsorship of Spanish club Getafe FC was… a whopper of a mistake.
Let’s start with the shirt. At first look, it was your average kit, until a player lifted it up during a goal celebration. Hidden underneath?
The actual Burger King’s face. Yes, the creepy plastic-masked mascot stared out from inside the jersey like a cursed Scooby-Doo villain.
Sales tanked. Fans were mortified. Players probably questioned their life choices every time they scored. This was less “have it your way” and more “who approved this?”
3. Dryworld – QPR
Most bad sponsors just look ridiculous. Dryworld went for the hat trick: looked bad, delivered late, and couldn’t pay up.
The Canadian sportswear brand inked a deal to provide QPR’s kits in 2016/17, but things went south fast. Production delays left the club scrambling. Kits arrived late. Players were wearing training gear. Fans were furious.
At one point, legal action was even floated.
Imagine waiting all summer for your shiny new jersey, only to be handed what felt like a prototype from a forgotten warehouse.
QPR quickly terminated the deal, and Dryworld faded back into the shadows of bad branding history.
4. TY – Portsmouth
TY Inc., the makers of Beanie Babies, rode the 90s fad wave like champions. But their foray into football was like trying to do ballet in hiking boots, awkward and misplaced.
From 2002 to 2005, their huge red heart-shaped logo was front and center on Portsmouth’s shirts. It didn’t matter that Portsmouth had just returned to the Premier League.
The only thing viewers could focus on was the plush toy branding that made grown men look like walking Valentine’s Day gifts.
You don’t win relegation battles with Beanie Babies. You win them with grit, steel, and maybe the occasional two-footed tackle, not stuffed animals.
5. Just Eat – Derby County
If ever there was a logo that screamed “midweek regrets and chicken wings at 2am,” it’s Just Eat. Which is great for your sofa. Terrible for your football jersey.
From 2014 to 2017, Derby County ran around with “Just Eat” emblazoned across their chests, as if the Rams were a Premier League delivery side.
The logo looked like a discount sticker stuck over something important. Clunky, loud, and somehow always a little greasy-looking, this was not the visual identity of a promotion-chasing team.
Yes, there’s a time and place for a kebab and curly fries. That time is not 3PM on a Saturday in front of 25,000 fans.
6. Flamingo Land – Hull City
When Hull City partnered with Flamingo Land, a North Yorkshire theme park and zoo, it was the perfect case of “just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.”
The team’s nickname is the Tigers, and yes, Flamingo Land has tigers.
But this wasn’t synergy. This was sponsorship via word association. The logo itself wasn’t even the worst part—though it did feel like something you’d find on a bumper car rather than a match kit.
It’s the implication that Hull City, a club fighting tooth and claw in the Premier League at the time, were backed by rollercoasters and pink birds.
You could almost hear the jokes writing themselves: “Hull’s defense was on a ride today,” or “They’re heading straight for the drop tower.”
7. Pooh Jeans – AC Milan
Yes, you read that correctly. Pooh Jeans.
In 1981, Milan decided the best way to mark their first-ever shirt sponsorship was with an Italian denim company named “Pooh.” It sounds like a schoolyard insult.
It reads like a typo. And yet, there it was, slapped across the chest of one of Europe’s most historic clubs.
Now, context is important.
Pooh Jeans was apparently trendy in Italy at the time. But that doesn’t change the fact that in English, the word “pooh” conjures up images of diapers, not denim. It was a branding blooper long before the age of internet memes, thankfully spared the social media circus of today.
8. Chupa Chups – Sheffield Wednesday
From 2000 to 2003, Chupa Chups; the colorful Spanish lollipop brand, sponsored Sheffield Wednesday. And you know what they say: nothing says footballing grit like sugar on a stick.
The red and yellow candy logo clashed violently with the club’s blue-and-white stripes. The result? A jersey that looked like a half-eaten bag of Skittles.
To be fair, Chupa Chups didn’t flee after one season.
They stuck around like bubble gum on a hot pavement. But there was always a strange dissonance seeing fully grown men sprinting in shirts that screamed school canteen treat rather than professional footballer.
9. XL Airways – West Ham United
Some sponsors fail because they look odd. Others fail because they implode. XL Airways did both.
West Ham’s 2007/08 season began with XL plastered across their shirts, promising big travel dreams and tropical holidays. But by mid-season, the airline had gone bust literally.
The club had to remove the logo from all kits after XL collapsed under its own financial mess.
The Hammers were left shirtless, metaphorically and almost literally, for the rest of the season. Fans scrambled to get refunds. The club scrambled to get a new deal. It was chaos wrapped in polyester.
You can’t spell “XL Airways” without “exit.”
10. Wonga – Newcastle United
Newcastle United has always been a club rich in history, passion, and incredibly poor boardroom decisions. Enter: Wonga.
The payday loan company took over as shirt sponsor in 2013, replacing legendary partnerships like Newcastle Brown Ale.
Fans hated it. Critics hated it. Even the players looked uncomfortable, as if the shirt came with hidden interest rates.
The real kicker? Wonga’s business model was heavily criticized for preying on financially vulnerable people.
So here was a proud, working-class club being paraded around by a company that charged sky-high interest rates to the very communities that filled St James’ Park.
A beautiful club, tainted by a very ugly sponsor.
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