West Ham Wear Sponsorless Jersey vs Sevilla
West Ham wore a sponsorless version of their home shirt earlier tonight in their Europa League clash against Sevilla. The reason is due to Spanish kit rules.
Ban on Gambling sponsors forces west ham to modify kit
Global online gambling company Betway are West Ham’s main sponsor and usually have their logo on the chest of the club’s kits in all competitions. However, gambling company logos have been banned from football shirts in Spain since the start of the 21-22 season, so the Hammers had to remove the logo to abide by the rules.
The rule caused a number of Spanish sides to start the La Liga season with blank shirts before finding a replacement for their previous betting sponsors. There was talk of a similar rule coming into place in the Premier League but there have been no changes yet.
As is almost always the case, the removal of the logo enhanced the appearance of the Hammers’ claret and blue kit, immediately giving it a cleaner and more old-school look. It was nice to see that the logo hadn’t been applied and then covered up with a patch, as was the case when their sponsor XL Holidays went bust midway through the 08-09 season, but rather was completely absent from the shirt.
Would you like to see more teams playing without sponsor logos? Comment below.
