Sponsor Issues for Market Albion FC's 2022-23 Home Kit

Market Albion's recent announcement of a new shirt sponsor for the 2022-23 season should have been straight forward, but the reality has been anything but for the top tier English side.

Just last week, Albion's chief executive Tommy Mathis proudly told a gathering of press reporters that The Guardian newspaper would feature their logo on the club's shirts for the coming season, an announcement that was warmly received by fans far and wide. In the time that has passed, however, complications have arisen about the usage of The Guardian logo on the Market Albion kit, much to the outrage of many supporters on social media.

The issues chiefly concern a large blue panel which, it has emerged, covers much of the lower part of the white home shirt. The panel, which also covers most of The Guardian's own logo, features the text 'You have read 325 articles on The Guardian website' before detailing the supposed advantages of donating money to the popular news organisation.

(Shown right: Market Albion 2022-23 home shirt - artist's impression)

"This is not something we were expecting at all" claimed an anxious Paul Dingley, marketing director for Albion. "The designs that were signed off and approved following confirmation of The Guardian's appointment as chief sponsor were meant to be clear and unobscured. It looks now as though we won't be able to get rid of that blue panel, even if we give The Guardian some more money."

Fans have already shown their disapproval of the shirt design, claiming it's a form of rampant commercialism creeping into the game. Other fans pointed out that this sort of thing has been happening for several decades now.

2 June 2022

See also:

• Pancedown 2022-23 Home Kit Leak Confirmed 4 June 2022