The best food brand on football jerseys

Recently the history of Stevenage F.C., an English fourth division club that thanks to the new sponsor Burger King has become the most used team in FIFA, has become very popular. That's because the American chain had made a promotion for football gamers, who would get a free Whopper if they posted on Twitter a picture of a Stevenage goal - the scorer should have been, however, a top player. Yet, not only Burger King, but also many other food brands have chosen to enter as sponsors in the world of football, populating the playing jerseys with their own logos or writings. From local food to multinationals, food has also chosen to invest in football. 

A 2018 Nielsen report suggested that 76% of the sponsorships in sport were from junk food companies, which is somewhat at odds with the idea of football's own physical activity. By the way, in football McDonalds is one of the most famous junk food brands also because for decades the main sponsor of the big sports competitions, from the World Cup to the European Championships to the Olympics. This has obviously detonated a number of controversies about food fairness and the morality of seeing these brands in contexts where physical activity takes place. This is an issue similar to those that have been populating public opinion in Anglo-Saxon countries for some years: this time betting sponsors are being targeted, and the goal is to cut gambling companies from sponsorships.

Napoli Calcio, Mars, 1990

A.S. Roma, Barilla, 1987

Empoli F.C. Sammontana, 1999

Napoli Calcio, Pasta Voiello, 1992

A.C. Milan, Olio Cuore, 1984

U.S. Ancona Calcio, Latte Trevvalli, 1993

Cagliari F.C., Pecorino Sardo, 1982

Pescara Calcio, GIS, 1992

In Italy, the link between food and sponsors in football has another dimension. In the 1990s, ten out of twenty clubs had a food company as their main sponsor, a ratio of 1 to 2 that over the years has flattened. Only in the last decade have food brands been seen. The most famous, surely, the Salamini Beretta of Torino or, this year, the Ten Food&Beverage of Spezia, while in the first year of Serie A, Benevento had Molisana in the center of their jersey..

Crotone F.C., San Vincenzo, 2019

A.C. Chievo Verona, Paluani, 2013

Benevento Calcio, Pasta Molisana, 2017

In Italy there is certainly a top-notch food attention, and the logical presence of large food brands has also been highlighted by the presence, over the years, of these brands in the teams. Above all, local companies have fed extraordinary duos, such as Pecorino Sardo and Cagliari, Sammontana and Empoli or Latte Tre Valli and Ancona: logos of local companies imprinted on the uniforms of local teams. Over the years this relationship has been lost under the blows of globalization, which has downgraded local brands as secondary partners in favor of big brands - very few cases of local branding.