In the late 1970s, clubs were hunting for fresh income, but front-of-shirt sponsorship faced pushback — particularly from TV broadcasters who said it amounted to free ads.
The Football Association and the Football League eased their stance ahead of the 1979-80 season, although sponsors’ logos still had to be removed for televised matches and all cup ties.
Everton made league history when Hafnia, a Danish tinned-meat brand, became the first name to appear on a shirt, and Liverpool followed days later with Japanese electronics firm Hitachi.
By 1983-84 the TV restrictions were lifted, and all 22 top-flight clubs had sponsorship deals.
Early partnerships were dominated by rising electronics brands such as JVC, Panasonic, Pioneer and Sharp.
In the inaugural Premier League season of 1992-93, nine of the 22 clubs were backed by technology companies, five of them from Japan.
Ten sponsors were UK-based, with seven located within 100 miles of their club and four within 10 miles. Wimbledon completed the season without a shirt sponsor.
Today, only four teams have UK-based sponsors. Three of those firms are headquartered in London, more than 100 miles from the clubs they back.
Ipswich are now the only side with a local partner, as Halo is based 12 miles away in Stowmarket.
Fans these days often have to look up unfamiliar brands to learn what they do and where they are from — whether that’s American tech company Snapdragon, South African energy drink KNOX Hydration, or US AI firms ClickHouse and Temporal.
Maguire said the value of such deals has surged, with commercial revenue rising by nearly 4,000%, from £58m to £2.4bn in 2024-25.
As the Premier League’s global broadcast reach has expanded, so too has the worth of these agreements, he added.
Front-of-shirt sponsorships are now among the largest components of club commercial income.
By the mid-1990s, roughly a third of clubs were sponsored by alcohol brands.
Those deals gradually dwindled, with Everton’s tie-up with Thai beer Chang the last of its kind in 2016-17.
A major shift came with the 2005 Gambling Act, which gave betting companies far greater freedom to place their names on the fronts of shirts.