How Kettering Town’s sponsorship deal changed football forever

Inter Milan and Pirelli. Barcelona and UNICEF. Liverpool and Crown Paints.

Thanks to shirt sponsorship, these brands spark instant nostalgia in football fans around the world.

Huge companies like Emirates and T-Mobile have become synonymous for many with teams, rather than the services they provide.

O2? Arsenal Invincibles of course. sharp? Manchester United, winner of the treble in 1999. Al-Ittihad? Manchester City and “Aguerooooo!”

But Kettering tires? Now there’s a story.

It has been 50 years since Kettering Town FC, nicknamed the Poppies, became the first English football club to feature a sponsor’s name on its shirt.

That moment, on January 24, 1976, gave birth to an industry now worth hundreds of millions of pounds.

The £4,000 deal was secured by Derek Duggan, then player director and head of business at the Northamptonshire club.

He saw a TV ad and thought the tire company’s initials were an exact match.

Nicknamed ‘The Doog’, he previously played for Wolverhampton Wanderers, Leicester City and Peterborough United, as well as spells in the United States.

“Duggan joining Kettering put us on the back pages and also the front pages with this shirt, this initiative,” recalls Sean Suddards, who played for the team at the time.

“He was president of the FA [Professional Footballers’ Association]He was George Best’s criminal play partner in Northern Ireland and was a television celebrity.

“And then he became a celebrity in Kettering.”

In an interview with Sports Argus at the time, Duggan said finding a different sponsor for each home match was “hopelessly time consuming”.

“I had the idea of ​​using one company to do a lot,” he said.

“When I found out the address of Kettering Tires – KT for Kettering Town – I knew I had a winner if I could get them to do this.

“When they agreed, I felt like I had achieved a breakthrough.”

The sponsor’s name first appeared in the Poppies’ Southern League Premier Division match against Bath City.

But within days, the FA ordered its removal, claiming it had breached its regulations.

Duggan reportedly stripped the lettering back to just “Kettering T”, but that was not accepted either.

“It was weird because suddenly the front of the shirt was the thing everyone noticed, whereas before that it had been the back,” recalls Soddards, now 72.

“Derek took the shirt by the neck and went ahead and did that, much to the annoyance of the powers that be.”

Duggan argued that he was one of many commercial directors in football who wanted to secure more money for their clubs.

He told the BBC in 1976: “Clubs are terrified of being deprived of the opportunity to bring extra money into the game.”

“I feel, quite frankly, like I have to take the bull by the horns.”

In a separate interview published in the Liverpool Daily Post, Duggan described the Football Association as “petty bureaucrats” for blocking the deal.

But with the threat of a £1,000 fine, Duggan had no choice but to back down.

“They said, ‘We can make big if you keep doing this,'” explains club historian Bob Brown.

“So Kettering Tires was no longer a shirt sponsor after that.”

But Dogan’s battle was not in vain. In June 1977, the FA decreed that a small crest would be allowed in the future, as long as it did not “harm the image of the game”.

Uruguayan club Penarol was the first in the world to introduce shirt sponsorship in the 1950s.

Later, German team Interact Braunschweig wore the logo of alcoholic beverage manufacturer Jagermeister on its shirts.

But football finance expert Kieran Maguire believes Kettering Town’s move was a pivotal moment in the game.

“Since we’ve seen the globalization of the Premier League and La Liga, shirt sponsorship has been a great way to associate your brand with a sport that is globally popular,” he says.

“We’ve seen big brands trying to get their name out to a wider demographic and they’re very willing to pay premium deals for it.”

According to GlobalData, the total value of shirt sponsorship deals involving Premier League clubs and gambling companies alone in the 2024-25 season was $135.43m (£101.1m).

“These organizations won’t renew those contracts if they don’t feel they’re getting value for money,” Maguire continues.

“But the fans also talk about the sponsors with affection. This is linked to the great interest among football fans in old shirts.

“For companies, this means they get the opportunity to recycle their brand and keep it relevant.”

The City of Kettering has produced replicas of the famous 1976 jersey to commemorate the anniversary.

The players will wear it for Saturday’s home game against Alvechurch and next weekend, away to Bishop’s Stortford.

Meanwhile, Brian Lewin, a supporter for 70 years, was searching for one of the originals.

They are incredibly rare as replica sets were rarely produced in the days the strip came out.

Lewin says the only person known to have owned one so far – a former player – has ruined it by wearing it in the park.

Duggan died in 2007, aged 69, but Lewin is proud of how his initiative has etched the club’s name into football history.

“This has generated millions of pounds for clubs in England,” he says.

“But go to your local park on a Saturday or Sunday morning and you will watch youth matches where many shirts are sponsored.

“This trickles down to the grassroots levels and brings money into football as a whole – not just the top level.”