FULHAM HOME 2001-02

FourFourTwo's resident shirt aficionado dishes up a slice of sponsorship history with a corker from Craven Cottage

- Words Phil Delves

How about a little pub quiz question to kick us off? Which club was the first to have a betting shirt sponsor in the Premier League? Bonus point if you can guess the season.

The answer is Fulham, who teamed up with Betfair for the 2002-03 campaign. It's hard to recall a time when footballers weren't covered in logos and slogans of gambling establishments, and we have the Cottagers to blame for opening the floodgates, enabling 42 betting behemoths to appear on Premier League jerseys.

There have been few shifts more seismic in the sponsorship game than the arrival of the betting company, and a sample of what Premier League (then 'FA Barclaycard Premiership') kits looked like in the season before the Betfair deal offers a glimpse into a bygone era. Five of 20 teams were sponsored by telecoms giants, with NTL particularly memorable given their loyalty to both Aston Villa and Newcastle. Another quarter of the league were backed by food and drinks businesses (a bit more on one of those shortly), as tandems such as Liverpool x Carlsberg and Leeds x Strongbow showcased the appeal of alcohol brands.