The English Football Association has imposed a $61,000 (£50,000) fine on soccer team Huddersfield Town for breaching advertising practices.
FA Fines Huddersfield Town over Paddy Power Sponsorship
The Football Association has slapped FC Huddersfield Town with a £50,000/$61,000 fine as the team has breached advertising regulations by promoting Paddy Power, a British sportsbook. On July 17, Huddersfield announced a new partnership with Flutter Entertainment and specifically its subsidiary, Paddy Power.
The deal extended to the shirt of the team which was in violation of the regulator’s statutes and a newly-agreed upon watershed ban. With the deal signed for the 2019/2020 season, this is bad news for both the soccer club and the sportsbook.
The FA specifically fined the team for its first game wearing the Paddy Power logo in a match against Rochdale AFC. However, Huddersfield specified that it had no intentions to keep wearing Paddy Power’s logo, nor was the deal going to extend into prime time. For all its games, Huddersfield Town would wear non-branded shirts, the club specified responding to the fine. However, the FA objection was not specifically against the logo of Paddy Power, but rather the size of it. As per advertising rules, the maximum a logo can be is 200 square centimetres. However, Huddersfield started their first game with a bang.
Has ‘Save Our Shirt’ Backfired?
All of this was part of the “Save Our Shirt” campaign which sought the completely opposite effect. Paddy Power wanted to urge competitors to stop striking partnerships for shirt sponsorships, as the practice is seen as leading to increase in gambling levels among underage individuals.
Paddy Power has agreed to commercial partnerships with a number of companies, including Motherwell in the Scottish Premier League, Macclesfield and Southen United. However, Paddy Power has decided to not require a shirt sponsorship on any of the occasions.
Paddy Power responded by making a statement that it would ‘unsponsor’ Motherwell, which at the time meant that the company would remove its logo from the team’s shirts.
Huddersfield’s Fine Justified
Hoping to serve as a wake-up call for the entire industry, the Save Our Shirt campaign has now brought Huddersfield a hefty penalty. In their official statement, the FA said that the soccer club had breached FA Regulation C.2(i) according to which, sponsorships are only allowed at the front of player’s shirts providing that it doesn’t exceed 200 square centimetres. Christopher Quinlan, who served as the head of the commission that reached the verdict against Huddersfield Town had this to say:
By virtue of Clause 1.1 of the Sponsorship Agreement “Regulations” include the FA’s regulations. Therefore, the club had a responsibility under the Sponsorship Agreement to comply with the FA’s Kit and Advertising Regulations. It could hardly be a material breach of the agreement to comply with its terms. That should have been apparent to anyone who read it.”
In the end, HTFC admitted wrong-doing. In an article published by Sky Sports, referee Martin Coy said that he had been approached by the club and said that the match would probably bring a lot of publicity, to which Mr. Coy tersely responded that he didn’t want to have to deal with any publicity.
The FA has also warned Huddersfield Town over their future conduct insofar breaching advertisement rules went.
