Brazilian fourth-tier side Fluminense de Feira have taken shirt sponsorship to a whole new level.
Not content with simply featuring sponsor’s logos on their shorts as well as their shirts, the Brasileiro Série D side have started using their shirt numbers to advertise special offers in the local supermarket.
Players now have a product written where their name would usually be printed on the back of their shirts, with conventional numbers replaced with the prices of bargain deals.
El Fluminense de Feira, de la Serie D brasileña, utiliza los números de las camisetas para publicitar ofertas de un supermercado. pic.twitter.com/jHlcIAtCKb — David Acebal (@dacebal) April 6, 2017
So their star striker Fernando Sobral, for example, no longer wars the number 10. Instead he is 10,98 – which is coincidentally the price of a pizza at the local superstore.
Another player wears 20,38 to advertise the cost of shaving cream, while a team-mates shirt displays the price of a bottle of shampoo.
Fluminense play at the 16,274 capacity Estádio Joia da Princesa ()
By way of explanation the team’s marketing director, Xiko Melo, said the move was made necessary because the Brazilian Football Confederation does little to support football clubs further down the league pyramid.
“Football is very ungrateful to small teams on this sponsorship issue,” he told local media. “You cannot put together a good team without conditions and having a good team requires resources.
“We had a few sponsors in the beginning, so we decided to have sponsors per game.”
However the shirts haven’t exactly helped matters on the pitch.
Fluminense de Feira lost their first match wearing their new shirts 6-0, to bitter local rivals Vitoria de Bahia.
dmills913 on April 7th, 2017 at 14:22 UTC »
Why is a pizza 10,98 and shaving cream twice that?
Renato-Laranja on April 7th, 2017 at 13:59 UTC »
Toilet paper out... shampoo in...
gotnomemory on April 7th, 2017 at 13:43 UTC »
That's ... Pretty creative, actually.