Which football teams have won the league without a shirt sponsor? | The Knowledge
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Plus: non-football athletes wearing football crests on their kit; and teams who were sponsored by news organisations.
“Chelsea are firmly in the title race despite what their manager says,” wrote Will Nichols before Christmas. “But who was the last team to win the English top flight without a shirt sponsor? Has it been done more recently in another country?”.
Chelsea’s conscious uncoupling from the title race doesn’t change the fact that this is a cracking question. Let’s start with the English top flight. Knowledge regular Dirk Maas has trawled the brilliant True Colours website – which, if you are the type of person who reads this column, is likely to be an endless source of serotonin – to find the answer: Aston Villa in 1980-81. Not content with using only 14 players (if you’re under the age of about 40, let that sink in) all season, they didn’t have a shirt sponsor either.
Brighton & Hove Albion British Caledonian.
Coventry Talbot.
Everton Hafnia.
Liverpool Hitachi.
Middlesbrough Datsun Cleveland.
Nottingham Forest Panasonic.
Southampton Rank Xerox.
Stoke Ricoh.
