When Bands Sponsor Football Teams: 15 Of The Finest Examples (Photos)

By Chris Wright

Bands and musicians sponsoring their local football teams: It’s a relatively modern phenomenon, but long may it continue.

Here’s 15 of the finest examples…

1. Heaven Shall Burn – FC Carl Zeiss Jena

As reported yesterday, German heavy metal band Heaven Shall Burn are sponsoring their local football team for the final game of the season, resulting in one extremely badass-looking kit

heaven-shall-burn-kit2

2. Super Furry Animals – Cardiff City

The Super Furries agreed a five-figure sum to sponsor Cardiff’s shirts on their FAW Cup run in 1999, with the resulting shirts now highly sought after on Ebay and the like…

cardiff-03-home-sfa

3. Wet Wet Wet – Clydebank FC

Cool as cool can be. With a fair old wodge of excess cash knocking round after a string of early 90s hits, Wet Wet Wet wanted to invest some of their funds back into their hometown football club and did so by becoming the Bankies’ shirt sponsor – the first ever deal of its kind…

SCOTTISH SOCCER

4. Goldie Lookin’ Chain – Newport County

Five years after the Super Furry Animals pioneered the format, Welsh hip-hop goofballs GLC followed suit by sponsoring their hometown side’s cup shirts…

GLCNewporttown

5. Die Toten Hosen – Fortuna Dusseldorf

Being devout fans of their local team, the German punk band sponsored Fortuna’s shirts from 2001 to 2003.

Indeed, when a goal is scored at the Esprit Arena, the band’s song “Strom” is still boomed out over the PA…

f95-dth-rot

6. Fat Boy Slim – Brighton & Hove Albion

Being the club’s second most prominent celebrity supporter (after Des Lynam of course), Norman Cook – or rather his record label, Skint – sponsored Brighton for several years…

brighton-fatboy

7. Prodigy – Eastleigh Reds Under-13s

We naturally assumed there’d be laws against this kind of thing, but in 2012 hardcore swivel-eyed ravemongers The Prodigy struck a deal to sponsor a kid’s team from Hampshire…

prodigy-kit-football-kids

8. Ian Brown – Chiswick Homefields FC

Ahead of the 2005/06 season, former Stone Roses frontman Ian Brown announced he was to sponsor his local London Commercial Division club by banging the name of his new album – “IB – The Greatest” – on the front of their shirts….

ian_brown-chiswick

(Photo: Alex Grace)

9. The Blockheads – Glynneath AFC Under-8s

The Blockheads, of Ian Dury fame, decided to bung Glynneath a new set of kits in 2014 after reading a tweet from manager Leighton Collins in which he referred to his young squad as “his little Blockheads”…

blockheads

10. Motorhead – Greenbank Under-10s ‘B’ Team

Again, we thought there’d be laws to prevent it, but Lemmy and his greasy pals ended up sponsoring an Under-10s team from Lincolnshire after manager Gary Weight called in a favour from the legendarily sleazy lead singer/grunter, an old acquaintance of his…

greenbank-motorhead

11. Amelia Lily – Hartlepool Touch Down Hotel Over-40s FC

Amelia Lily, we’re reliably informed, was an also-ran on the 2011 series of The X Factor.

That’s her dad, Barry, holding the football there…

amelia-lily-football

12. Bad Manners – Margate FC

In 1996, Margate FC agreed a deal to have a Ska record label sponsor the club. This led to Bad Manners singer Buster Bloodvessel (who owned a hotel in Margate which catered solely for overweight clientèle at the time) taking a place on the club’s board and also splashing his band’s logo across the front of their shirts…

bad-manners-margate

13. Biffy Clyro – Bonnyton Thistle Under-9s

The densely bristled, oft-shirtless Scottish rockers did one of their old football clubs a solid back in 2009 by presenting them with a brand new set of kits…

Biffy Clyro-Bonnyton Thistle2

14. The View – Dryburgh Athletic Under-11s

Following Biffy’s lead, scruffy Scottish indie urchins The View did likewise the following year…

view-drybrough

15. Def Leppard – Rhiwbina Under-10s Rugby Club

We know it’s not strictly football, but this is included only because of the fact that Def Leppard lead singer Joe Elliott openly admitted he thought he was sponsoring a football team until it was later pointed out that Rhiwbina Rugby Club are in fact a rugby club..

def-leppard-kit

Bonus entries…

Pulp – Sheffield FC Girls Under-14s (thanks to @_tylerc_)

pulp-kits

Any more for any more, Pies fans? Give us a nudge down if so…