A game with no logo

The game played on Sat. Sep 13th 2008 at the Hawthorns between West Bromwich Albion and West Ham United should go down in history. The most serious facet of the game is that, for the 1st time since 1978, a game in Britain's top flight was played by clubs neither of which had a shirt sponsor logo.

Unlike Albion however, United have been able to get a new sponsor : SBOBET, an internet betting company. Above all, it demonstrates that money trouble somewhere else in industry has had a tertiary effect for soccer. West Ham failed to make the same mistake, signing an eighteen month deal with SBOBET worth an approximate £2million. However, the deal is worth significantly less than that which they'd formerly concluded with XL, guestimated as being worth around £7.5million for a 3 year deal.

United too have apparently fallen foul of the downturn, now that AIG is effectively a US government-owned organisation.

Much has been made from the differential effects the business recession has.