West Ham's shirt sponsor has gone bust

Jippy

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The Swiss franc's mental movements over the last two days have wiped out a few FX brokers, one being West Ham's shirt sponsor Alpari. They might have a blank kit on Sunday- didn't they used to have fairly recently?

West Ham United faced with empty chests as shirt sponsor goes bust
Alpari’s insolvency raises questions about what will appear on players’ shirts on Sunday

Alpari's logo clearly visible on the chest of West Ham's Adrian during their FA cup third-round replay against Everton. Photograph: Action Images
Companies put their names on the shirts of Premiership football clubs in the hope that some of the sporting glamour will rub off on their dull corporporate images. But it doesn’t always work out like that.

West Ham’s sponsor, Alpari, sank into insolvency on Friday, caught out by wild spasms in the currency, raising a question mark over whether the company’s logo will be blazoned across players’ chests when the team runs out at Upton Park to face Hull City on Sunday.

It’s not the first time the club has faced such a dilemma. In 2008, the group’s then shirt sponsor XL, Britain’s third-largest package holiday group, collapsed spectacularly leaving 80,000 customers stranded overseas and disrupting the travel plans of many more.

The brand association was supposed to be lucrative for the east London club but ended in the Hammers suspending all sales of replica shirts and removing branding from Upton Park and team shirts. West Ham’s then owner, the Icelandic tycoon Björgólfur Guðmundsson, had been deeply involved in the affairs of XL for many years. The following year Guðmundsson, who had also held a major interest in Landsbanki, the failed Icelandic bank behind the Icesave scandal, had declared himself bankrupt.

Previous West Ham shirt sponsors included Dr Martens, the shoe brand owned by R Griggs & Co, which narrowly avoided bankruptcy in 2002.

The trickiest spell in recent history for Premiership clubs and their shirt sponsorship deals was 2007-8. XL was not the only kit name to go to the wall that period – that corporate failure was eclipsed by collapses of AIG (Manchester United’s shirt sponsor) and Northern Rock (Newcastle United).

http://www.theguardian.com/business...-faced-empty-chests-shirt-sponsor-alpari-bust
 

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Didn't this happen to West Ham a few years ago too?


Sponsors beware!
 

Nanook

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Most teams in the Premier League get very little from their shirt sponsor, I think Zoopla was only paying WBA £1.5m a season to put the logo on their shirts.
 

saivet

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Only just found out today but West Ham have an FA Cup shirt. When I watched ET & penalties against Everton I did find it odd that they were playing in purple but didn't make anything of it at the time.
 

Revan

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What a disgrace. So as long as the bucks are not rolling in they're nothing to West Ham? Sponsors are partners in good times and bad times!
Really? Always thought that sponsors are companies which give you money as part of their marketing.

I think that every club would have done the same (though probably by printing new shirts rather than going full high tech).
 

RedorDead21

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I'm surrounded by West Ham fans at work. I was giving this some thought today. We have a 750m sponsor and West Ham's has just gone out of business. Its a small measure of where the two clubs are. Come our game against them in afew weeks I wouldnt even be sure if we will be odds on to win against them. Its just not right how ever you look at it.
 

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Its how I've always taught my daughters the direction points of the compass:

Never Ever Sponsor Westham :cool:
 

matherto

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I'm surrounded by West Ham fans at work. I was giving this some thought today. We have a 750m sponsor and West Ham's has just gone out of business. Its a small measure of where the two clubs are. Come our game against them in afew weeks I wouldnt even be sure if we will be odds on to win against them. Its just not right how ever you look at it.
We don't have a £750m sponsor.

We have a £750m deal with a kit manufacturer to make our shirts.

It's substantially less for the actual sponsor, Chevrolet.
 

Acole9

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I'd imagine that they'll have The Bobby Moore Foundation on their shirts rather than patching the old sponsor up like they did when XL went bust.
 

11101

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West Ham should have had more idea what their sponsors are up to. The Swiss removed the rate peg for everyone, only Alpari and FXCM were overexposed to the point of being unable to cover their client's positions.
 

Jippy

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West Ham should have had more idea what their sponsors are up to. The Swiss removed the rate peg for everyone, only Alpari and FXCM were overexposed to the point of being unable to cover their client's positions.
:lol:Am not sure that the West Ham board, when carrying out their due diligence on the sponsor, can really factor in potential future and massively unexpected actions by the Swiss National Bank.
 

11101

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:lol:Am not sure that the West Ham board, when carrying out their due diligence on the sponsor, can really factor in potential future and massively unexpected actions by the Swiss National Bank.
No but they could have seen the exposure they had to a particular market. Not as if the SNB arent known for doing whatever the feck they want either.
 

Jippy

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I think that's a bit harsh and United fans are not really in a position to lecture, given what happened to AIG. Doubt we have really scrutinised the credit of Chevrolet's car financing book tbh.