Updated with a ton of football teams from all over the world that have very close ties with their main sponsor(s). It varies from case to case how close these ties are, some companies want to incorporate their logo in the club's logo, others do not and there are also companies that design the club's logo along the lines of the company's logo.
Additionally, we added the branch of industry these companies come from to provide more background info on who openly invests into football. What is even more interesting is the fact that some leagues endorse these teams with sponsor names since other income streams are not viable enough to compete at the highest level.
Big thanks to BoydMwila, Christopher Mina Caicedo, Chris Velazquez, Dan Crooke, ezio ilpaKi, JayEmKay, Jpusb1909, Khoma Ramari-Mari Steven Kugler, and william. Without your help this update would not have been possible.
factory football clubs, Red Bull empire & Austrian Football Bundesliga
Cadbury Athletic F.C. - confectionery
CASHPOINT SCR Altach - game of luck
Club Deportivo Filanbanco - banking sector
Club Deportivo La Equidad Seguros S.A. - insurance company
Club Sport Emelec - electricity
FC Carl Zeiss Jena - imaging
FC Liefering - conglomerate
Flyeralarm Admira - printing
JEF United Chiba (JE = JR East (rail transport) & F = Furukawa Electric (electrical equipment))
Metropolitan Police F.C. - founded by police force of London, originally made up of policemen
MOL Fehérvár FC - oil and gas
Red Bull Bragantino - conglomerate
RZ Pellets Wolfsberger Athletiksport Club - wood pellets
Semen Padang FC - building materials
SK Puntigamer Sturm Graz - brewery
Sporting Cristal - brewery
spusu Sportklub Niederösterreich St. Pölten - telecommunication
Team ThorenGruppen - private schools
TSV Prolactal Hartberg - dairy products
WSG Swarovski Tirol - fashion, crystal and jewelry
As we covered a few days ago Chinese teams will be forced to remove any affiliation to big sponsors in their names from 2021 to tackle the way football works in China. These clubs bring in old superstars from abroad for huge sums instead of banking on Chinese players, which is probably the reason for the Chinese government to intervene.
Chinese Teams Forced To Remove Sponsors From Club Names
Although it might seem like this issue is exclusive to clubs from certain regions this is not the case: there are football clubs from Africa, Asia, Europe, South and North America that implement their main sponsor into the team's name. Here is a list of teams that have the name of a company directly in their identity.
Current Teams Named After A Sponsor
There are even companies nowadays that buy several teams and build up a network of clubs that trade their players among themselves (Red Bull, City Football Group - affiliation not present in team names). Other examples are teams that were originally founded as factory football clubs and later became professional (Bayer 04 Leverkusen, PSV Eindhoven).
Airbus UK Broughton F.C. - aerospace, defence
Ashanti Gold SC - mining
Bayer 04 Leverkusen - life sciences, pharmaceuticals, chemicals
Bidvest Wits F.C. - conglomerate
Cruz Azul - building materials
Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors - conglomerate
New York Red Bulls - conglomerate
NK Slaven Belupo - pharmaceutics
NT Realty Tai Po - real estate
OOH Lincoln L.F.C. - media
Philips Sport Vereniging - conglomerate
RB Leipzig - conglomerate
Red Bull Brasil - conglomerate
Red Bull Salzburg - conglomerate
SCG Muangthong United F.C. - building materials
Supersport United F.C. - television channel
Suwon Samsung Bluewings F.C. - conglomerate
SV Wacker Burghausen - chemicals
Technogroup Welshpool Town F.C. - IT service organisation
Ulsan Hyundai FC - conglomerate
Vauxhall Motors F.C. - automotive
Did we miss any teams with sponsor names? What do you think about companies investing heavily into football? Drop us a line below.