Brown Ale, Banking and Betting: A story about shirt sponsors

I saw a young Muslim boy earlier this week dressed top to toe in a Liverpool kit. It got me thinking of something.

When I was a kid, I remember how much I wanted a football shirt, more specifically, a Newcastle United top. Bear in mind this was in 1995/96 or so, height of the entertainers era and the almost-glory days.

There was one thing stopping me however. It wasn’t money (even though I was only 11/12 at the time).

You may find it a bit weird.

But it was the fact there was the big Newcastle Brown Ale sponsor right slap bang in the centre of it. That was a huge no-no — and I probably would have never been allowed to wear it, such is the taboo around alcohol in Islam. Many of the teams back then had alcohol companies as sponsors — certainly the likes of Liverpool with Carlsberg and even my local team, Nottingham Forest. I remember looking enviously at my cousins, all avid Man U fans, happy as Larry with their Sharp emblazoned red football kits. Hmph, lucky gits.

I remember, one of my mates, a Liverpool supporter ended up buying a Tottenham kit — only because they were one of the ones it was safe for him to get (they were sponsored by Hewlett Packard). Although they were rubbish at the time, at least they weren’t a rival (Man U) or…