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West Ham United - Sponsor update

Sunday, 21 September 2008 00:39

West Ham United played with squad numbers in place of a sponsor's logo against Newcastle United today.

The decision follows consultation with the Premier League with regard to the various options open to the club following the termination of the relationship with XL Holidays last week.

This decision still allows future dispensation from the Premier League to change player and replica kits to a new commercial sponsor once an agreement is in place.

WHUFC: "Although aware and respectful of the supporter-backed campaign to replace XL Holidays with the Bobby Moore Fund for Cancer Research UK, the commercial reality is the club has a financial duty to secure the best possible sponsorship package to help with the continued development of the first-team squad. "

With this statement the Board dismissed the wishes of more than 10,000 supporters who signed a online petition, claiming that 'the commercial reality is the club has a financial duty to secure the best possible sponsorship package'.

The petition:

To: Chairman of West Ham United FC

CAMPAIGN FOR WEST HAM UNITED TO USE THE BOBBY MOORE FUND LOGO AS THEIR "SPONSOR" FOR THE REMAINDER OF THE 2008/09 SEASON (WITH A PERCENTAGE OF SHIRT SALES GOING TOWARDS THE BMF).

If you agree with the above, please sign below! FC Barcelona were the first Club to use this idea and Unicef has been proudly displayed on their shirts since August 2007. More recently Aston Villa FC have from this season changed as well, local charity 'Acorns' being the grateful beneficiaries.

After the unfortunate demise of XL, this is a fantastic opportunity for West Ham United to pay tribute to the late, great Bobby Moore OBE in what is the 50th Anniversary of his League debut for the Club (plus of course, the long overdue Retirement of his legendary number/shirt).

For just one season West Ham... DO THE RIGHT THING!

You can sign the petition here

Comments

0 # Jay29ers 2008-09-21 01:26

As I said in my email to West Ham, they could have had the fund design sewn over XL until they got a new sponsor instead of wearing the stupid clashing patch and now this funrunner rubbish.

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0 # 2008-09-21 04:26

Those numbers look awful.... keep it plain like last week

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0 # roger 2008-09-21 09:57

This is the national team of West Ham United...

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0 # 2008-09-21 15:23

The numbers idea makes the players look like London Marathon funrunners. From West Ham\'s point of view, they have already lost some money from the demise of XL and would incur further loss by donating shirt sales money to a charity. It would be better to establish some sort of cooperative relationship between the charity and the club to increase the charitable donations.

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0 # pachyderm 2008-09-21 16:56

they could use a smaller number..

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0 # 2008-09-21 19:47

i think the white square was put to cover the XL sponser print

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0 # johnnycakes 2008-09-21 21:34

118 118

surely umbro can pull out there finger and produce plain shirts for the players?

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0 # Jay29ers 2008-09-22 00:28

I agree, johnnycakes.

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0 # greenz 2008-09-22 13:45

They should do.. They\'d probably sell more it it were unsponsored too.

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0 # 2008-09-22 13:48

The problem is, they\'ll probably have loads of XL-branded shirts which will have already been supplied, for them to put numbers/names on as they need.

No point in chucking them away I suppose. Still, a charity logo would have been better than the numbers (and wouldn\'t have cost any more)

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0 # jack lynn 2008-09-22 21:48

instead of numbers ,why not large hammers badge .sure to go down well with suporters and kids

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0 # 2008-09-24 13:37

The number would not be bad after all, if rightly made. A white number inside a maroon box (even if this box had to carry a light blue trim to avoid any clash between the shades of maroon) would look much better than this one they used...

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0 # 2008-09-26 11:34

surely they could use the bobby moore fund untill a corperate sponsor is found. everyone is a winner, the bobby moore fund gets some much needed advertising, the players dont look retarded with patches on their shirt and the club only have to do it till a luctative deal happens. the shirts with the limited sponsor on could then be auctioned when a proper sponsor is found and proceds donated to the Bobby Moore fund

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