As he congratulates his players and staff on their 1-0 victory over Eintracht Frankfurt, which secured them a place in the Europa League semifinals, Ange Postecogolou says, “you’re going to have to put up with me for a little longer.”
Ruben Amorim, head coach at Manchester United, said that “moments like this make it worth it” as his team scored twice in the final minute of extra time to defeat Lyon 5-4 to clinch a stunning comeback to reach the Europa League semi-finals.
There were times when the shirts of the top English football teams featured household names, but those days are long gone.
More and more well-known than ever, and many of the companies that now sponsor shirts don’t even try to sell anything to fans.
The combined value of shirt sponsorship deals between Premier League clubs and gambling companies, according to GlobalData figures, is $135.43 million (£101.1) for the 2024-2020 season.
When the Premier League was its foundation three decades ago, none of its 22 clubs had a shirt sponsorship agreement with a gambling company.
The majority of the businesses that sponsored teams for the 1992-1993 campaign sold physical goods in Britain, compared to the majority of those who sponsored teams.
One of the front-of-shirt sponsor companies with headquarters in the UK is currently aiming to sell physical goods that fans can purchase directly. Even Standard Chartered, the partner bank of Liverpool, does not permit customers from the UK to open a current account there.
Technology, construction, and clothing are all now almost entirely absent from shirts.
Seven Premier League shirt sponsors had factories whose headquarters were 100 miles away from their club during the inaugural season. Four of those were based within ten miles, and two, Ipswich and Sheffield United, were closer than ten miles away.
Liverpool is the only club that is currently located within 1,000 miles of the main headquarters of the shirt sponsor.
Big business and wider influence are increasingly what sponsor companies are aiming for, as opposed to the cash flow from the fans in the stands, as have technological advancements and globalization and technological advancements also played a role in changing the dynamic of contemporary sponsorships.
Dr. Joe Piggin, a senior lecturer in sports management and policy at the University of Loughborough, states that “there are around 70 million people in the UK, but there are billions of people all over the world.” Therefore, the companies are provided with economic incentives.
Companies in nations with strong economies in the early 1990s that have since weakened, such as Japan, have become less popular as shirt sponsors as the world has changed.
Meanwhile, sponsorship deals are being made in more recent financial hotspots like the Middle East.
Sponsor companies gain a lot more from working with clubs than just advertising: they can host clients in private boxes, shoot photos with famous players for corporate photos, and occasionally use relationships for political leverage.
Although Uefa announced its first official gambling sponsor last summer, the Premier League itself does not have a formal gambling partner.
Gambling companies are also the most frequently sponsored players at top division clubs in Belgium, Greece, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, and Russia, according to Uefa’s European Club Finance and Investment Landscape report.
The top sectors for shirt sponsorships in Europe’s top divisions are:
With six clubs including Burnley, Middlesbrough, QPR, Stoke, Sunderland, and Watford, gambling is also the most widely used category of shirt sponsor in the Championship.
In League One and League Two shirts, there are no gambling sponsors. Energy, automotive, and food and beverage are the three main industries in those divisions.
According to Matt Zarb-Cousin, co-founder of Gamban, software that aims to help users quit online gambling, “gambling advertising has become almost inextricably linked to football and the industry makes a concerted effort to target young men, which is the profile most likely to develop problems with gambling.”
A generation is developing up in a culture that associates watching football with betting, believing it to be a necessary component of playing sport.
Between April 2022 and March 2023, gambling companies generated a revenue of £15.1 billion, according to the most recent figures from the UK Gambling Commission. With that income, they have plenty of money to spend on advertising. Some people think they will expand their advertising into other areas, such as pitchside hoardings and perhaps even shirt sleeves, even with the looming front-of-shirt ban.
Piggin claims that the front-of-shirt sponsorship withdrawal is symbolic. The significance of that transition beyond public relations is questioned by me.
None of the top six Premier League clubs’ front shirts feature a gambling company: Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, and Tottenham Hotspur.
Gambling companies can target clubs in the lower leagues without spending large sums of money on top-end projects because they face a much higher chance of relegation and the potential economic insecurity that comes with doing so.
“It is less expensive than sponsoring any of the top six,” says Piggin. Additionally, they are recognized on shirts when these teams play in the top six anyway. So why would it be said that “look, we’re in the Premier League, who cares who we’re sponsoring?” “
Some of the gambling sponsors have locations in tax havens like Curacao and Malta, allowing them to retain more of their customers’ profits.
Some of the gambling establishments that appear on the front of shirts are impossible for UK customers to wager on.
Even though gambling is prohibited there, many of those businesses have their headquarters in East Asia and are aimed at customers there.
According to Dr. Raffaello Rossi, a marketing lecturer at the University of Bristol, “There are ways around China’s gambling ban using VPNs and so on.” The Chinese government is in charge of all of their advertising, but they only do so in the UK. Because the Premier League is a global phenomenon, they are still reaching the Chinese population.
However, the fact that British gamblers can’t use some of these companies doesn’t necessarily mean the advertisement has no impact on the audience.
Scott Bemand, Ireland’s head coach, is confident that his squad will recover from the defeat of renowned flanker Erin King for the duration of the Six Nations and the World Cup later this year.
The full extent of King’s knee injury was revealed on Thursday following Ireland’s defeat by England last weekend.
Bemand’s team plays Wales at Rodney Parade on Sunday, and while it does affect you, “we understand injuries can happen.”
“She has really been circled around by the group really well.” We don’t want to mop, Erin says. She wants us to perform at a venue.
Because Erin is still a member of the group and its environs, we’ll take some of her energy to training this week and bring it with us to Wales.
Edel McMahon, the squad skipper, may return to the back row after missing the England game due to a knock, while Claire Boles, a native of Enniskillen, will make an alternative substitution for the unlucky King.
We can’t rely on just one player, they say. The depth needs to be kept growing. Girls are entering, the Ireland coach said.
This week, Edel is back online. Claire Boles has excelled at the camp and has her own distinctive open-side flanker. There are some choices available to us. We’re all good, and we’ll be able to perform.
Although Bemand revealed that King’s injury is related to her cartilage rather than her cruciate ligaments, it is still serious enough to thwart her chances of winning the World Cup.
The Ireland coach continued, “The doctors told her that they were surprised she could continue, but she claimed that it was just a niggle.”
After the game, it actually deteriorated. So it wasn’t like she was unable to move or run around during the game.
In Cork, Ireland took the early lead over England. Bemand believed that his team’s first-half weaknesses contributed just as much to the ultimately crushing defeat, despite England’s 49-5 victory in the second half, which left them with 42 unanswered points.
It’s more important to examine the second half than the first. What does England team talk look like at half-time if we get that bit right and we’re 15-17-0 up at half-time? “he said.
Women’s Champions League: Arsenal v Lyon
Venue: Emirates Stadium Date: Saturday, 19 April Kick-off: 12:30 BST
For Arsenal and Lyon, Saturday’s meeting in north London will be comfortably their biggest game of the season to date.
That there is a significant reunion thrown into the mix will only amplify the sense of occasion.
What is clear is that the first leg of the Women’s Champions League semi-final presents an opportunity to put one foot in May’s final.
Arsenal, the only English side to have won the competition, are eyeing a first European crown since 2007.
For Lyon, a record-extending ninth title is within sight.
And in charge of masterminding a Lyon victory is a familiar face, with former Arsenal head coach Joe Montemurro returning to Emirates Stadium.
Montemurro arrived at Arsenal from Melbourne City in December 2017, tasked with turning around a slow start to the season which had led to the club parting company with Pedro Martinez Losa.
The new boss took just three months to lift his first piece of silverware as Arsenal won the Women’s League Cup, before he guided the team to their first Women’s Super League title for seven years the following season.
That achievement also secured a spot in the Women’s Champions League for the first time since 2013-14.
Arsenal went on to reach the quarter-finals in Europe, but they missed out on trophies during Montemurro’s final two seasons and he chose to leave at the end of the 2020-21 campaign to spend more time with his family.
Former Arsenal defender Jen Beattie, who played under Montemurro for two seasons, was full of praise for the Australian.
“I loved his style of play, I loved his training, I loved his technical outlook on the game. He really simplified the game. And I loved his philosophy and his methodology,” Beattie told BBC 5 Live Sport’s Women’s Football Weekly.
“He was so easy to talk to. You could approach him about anything, you could talk about personal things, you can talk about football.
“He will get the warmest welcome coming back. All the girls still there that worked under him understand that and the fans as well.”
During his tenure at Arsenal, which coincided with the emergence of a dominant Chelsea side, Montemurro won two trophies, reached four domestic cup finals, and twice guided Arsenal into the Women’s Champions League.
Tasked with spoiling Montemurro’s return is Slegers, who was appointed as Arsenal’s permanent head coach in January 2025, following the departure of Jonas Eidevall last October.
Eidevall, who led the side to a Champions League semi-final in 2023, left with Arsenal sixth in the WSL and reeling from a 5-2 defeat by Bayern Munich in their Champions League opener.
Since then, Arsenal have won 22 of their 27 matches under Slegers, including a 13-match unbeaten run to begin her tenure.
The Champions League provides their most realistic hope of silverware this season, and one area of improvement under Slegers has been Arsenal’s attacking form.
“There’s a clear connection between Slegers and the players,” former Arsenal defender Anita Asante told BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra. “She’s shown she trusts what they can do on the pitch and allows them to do it.
“They’re more aggressive in that final third now and they’re really clinical too.”
Under Slegers, Arsenal have scored:
England striker Alessia Russo, who is expected to return from injury on Saturday, has found her best form under the Dutchwoman and is joint second in the Champions League individual standings with six goals.
Assessing how Slegers’ side compare to Eidevall’s, Asante added: “It’s direct, it’s snappier, and it’s also harder to defend [against].
In Lyon, Arsenal are facing Women’s Champions League royalty.
The French side have won the competition a record eight times, including a run of five consecutive titles between 2016 and 2020, and reached the final on a further three occasions, most recently in 2024 when they lost to Barcelona.
They have continued to thrive in Montemurro’s first season in charge, beating Wolfsburg, Roma, and Galatasaray home and away to top Group A by nine points before defeating Bayern Munich 6-1 on aggregate to cruise into the last four for the 14th time in 18 Champions League campaigns.
Lyon’s squad includes France forward Kadidiatou Diani and Haitian midfielder Melchie Dumornay, who have shared nine goals and six assists in the Champions League this season, and 2018 Ballon d’Or winner Ada Hegerberg.
Despite their opponents’ form and personnel, Beattie has backed Arsenal to reach the final.
“I think Lyon are there for the taking,” Beattie said. “I have watched them a lot over the Champions League. I don’t think they’re the Lyon we’ve seen in previous seasons that dominate the European game.
“I’m thinking Arsenal can take this one and to see them in the Champions League final will hopefully be absolutely epic. A home start will be so important [and] a good result. The Emirates will be massive.”
Asante said “whoever controls the midfield” will come out on top.
Having watched Arsenal’s 5-1 win over Leicester City on Tuesday, she believes they have the fluidity in attack to exploit Lyon’s weaknesses.
“Lyon do play quite often with attacking full-backs, very similar to Arsenal, but they’re really scary in transition,” Asante said.
“Even though Lyon dismantled Bayern Munich, they showed weaknesses and if Arsenal can exploit them and catch them in moments when they lack concentration, they can absolutely hurt them.
“If [Arsenal] perform how they did against Leicester, they definitely have a chance to dismantle Lyon because they were fluid in their moments, they found those connections, and they were clinical in attack when they created those goalscoring opportunities.
The Fantasy Premier League season heads straight into a second straight double gameweek.
You’ll likely see a lot of similar teams among your rivals and FPL experts at the moment, but there are still advantages to be made if you play it smart. There are only four teams playing twice in week 33: Manchester City, Aston Villa, Arsenal, and Crystal Palace.
Saka is the most exciting pick given that Ipswich will play twice, and Palace will host them.
Does Mikel Arteta rest him? Newcastle are struggling to maintain their lead in second place, so the Gunners manager can’t afford too much rotation.
Between the Palace game and their Champions League clash with Paris St-Germain, they also have a six-day break.
Even if we get another double in 36, Gameweek 33 has the best chance to Bench Boost before the season’s conclusion.
If you have 15 playing assets and you like the match-ups for most of them, then pull the trigger.
There aren’t many nailed-on assets among Arsenal, City, or Villa, so the main issue is game time. Although the pace is less predictable, cup competitions might be in the cards for all four teams.
Don’t be afraid to send out good single gameweek players to bolster your team with another double option.
Liverpool – face woeful Leicester so Mohamed Salah is a must and Virgil van Dijk has as good a clean sheet chance as any double gameweek defender.
West Ham’s Jarrod Bowen makes a jump-out performance against relegated Southampton. You should also have confidence when establishing a defensive weapon for West Ham.
Manchester United – Wolves at home could be productive for Bruno Fernandes. His five double-digit wins this year came against teams that were (at the time) in the bottom five.
Daniel Munoz, a defensive player, finished with -1 point in Gameweek 32, which is difficult to come back to. He’s still super attacking – with eight entries into the box in 32 – and was close to an assist, but Bournemouth and Arsenal are both likely to score against Palace.
Even if Eberechi Eze, Ismaila Sarr, and Jean-Philippe Mateta are already on your team, I still believe in them.
With four players scoring in total, defense was nearly a failure, but Kieran Trippier’s 12-pointer saved the day.
Jacob Murphy (19 points) was the star man but 70 points is still disappointing for a double gameweek.
David Raya, Arsenal, keeper, £5.5m
Arsenal’s William Saliba, $6. 5 million
Ipswich (a) and Crystal Palace (h) square off.
The two most reliable Arsenal defensive assets in a week where they could easily get two clean sheets. I am aware of it, but very consistent.
Liverpool Virgil van Dijk, £6. 6 million – Leicester (a)
Leicester scored last week but lost their previous eight games without scoring. This week’s most blatant clean sheet scream.
He would be a better choice than Palace’s (see above), and Villa, who have kept three clean sheets in their last four games but are unlikely to do so this week.
Josko Gvardiol, Manchester City, £6.2m – Everton (a), Villa (h)
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Arsenal, £10.5 million – Ipswich (a), and Palace (h): Bukayo Saka (captain).
For the reasons stated above, I’d be confident about Saka’s minutes this week. He is recovering from an injury, but he also needs some game time.
He gets the armband because of his previous experience, which allowed him to easily score double digits in both of these games.
Mohamed Salah (vice-captain), Liverpool, £13.8m – Leicester (a)
Salah’s net transfers were negative for the first time since week eight of last gameweek. Don’t be one of the sellers for him, though.
And if you are risk averse, or worried about game time for your doublers, Salah would make a very safe captain choice.
Morgan Rogers, Aston Villa, £5.6 million (h), Man City (a), and Newcastle (h)
It turns out Rogers was foolish to speculate about his last-week rest. He’s become a player who starts every game for Villa. You do not expect them to score in either of these matches, but Rogers is the only Villa forward you can really expect to start both.
West Ham’s Jarrod Bowen, £7.5 million- Southampton (h)
This match-up is too juicy to pass up for West Ham’s talisman. Despite having a 7/ 10 season so far, Bowen still has four double-digit seasons.
He has 17 shots, 12 of which have been in the box, in his previous six games. Bowen usually overperforms his expected goals (xG) yet he has just one goal in that time from 1.4 xG, suggesting he might be due.
Eberechi Eze, Crystal Palace, £6.9 million (H), Arsenal (A), and Bournemouth (H).
With little league play to play for and an FA Cup semi-final four days later, I’m becoming more and more convinced Palace boss Oliver Glasner rests some key players in the Arsenal game.
But Eze is still worth a punt. He could have hauled in week 32, as previously mentioned, and things would have changed a lot about him.
Everton (a), Villa (h), Omar Marmoush, Manchester City, £7.3 million.
If you don’t own Saka, you can hear him shouting “Triple Captain” in his previous four games.
If you’ve owned and watched Marmoush play in those four games, you’ll be feeling like he could have scored more and his underlying statistics back that up.
The Egyptian has had four big chances, including four on target and four on target, and he is a haul waiting to happen.
Crystal Palace, Bournemouth, £5.8 million (a)
Since the Brazilian made his first start on his return from injury five games ago, he has led the way among strikers in almost every category.
Jorgen Strand Larsen, a Wolves striker, has the most goals in the box (16), the most chances in the box (7), and the highest xG (4.44), making him the only forward with five goals behind Evanilson’s four.
West Ham defender Max Kilman, £4.3 million (h)
Iliman Ndiaye, Everton, striker, £5.2m – Manchester City (h)
Southampton defender Jan Bednarek, £4 million (a) West Ham
Total cost for Teal: £99.9 million.
Nottingham Forest striker Chris Wood for £6.9 million.
The 18-goal striker is fit again and Forest face leaky Spurs this week, before a home game against Brentford.
West Ham – Southampton (h), Brighton (a), Spurs (h)
If your budget is tight, the Hammers have cheap defenders to choose from, as well as midfielders Bowen and Mohammed Kudus ($6.2 million), who are frequently playing forwards while they are not particularly wealthy.