Charlton Athletic Online

I don't know why, but I got around to thinking about shirt sponsors, and it dawned on me that it was 1981 when Charlton first carried a sponsors logo on their shirtfronts. That means that this is the 25th season we've had shirt sponsors at Charlton. By the way, if someone else has written about this recently, I apologise; I don't think I've stolen your thoughts...

Charlton's first sponsor back in '81 was FADS. I seem to remember that they came in mid-season (around February?), but in those days you could not wear your sponsored shirts when you were on TV. As Charlton were having a good season, eventually getting promoted, we seemed to be on TV quite a lot. The bad news was that it seemed that when we were not on TV (ie. when we wore the FADS shirts), we couldn't win! Someone with a much better memory than me will confirm how long it took, but I would guess that we played about ten times without victory in FADS shirts before the duck was broken.

After FADS, we had the Woolwich Building Society. The local BS name adorned our shirt fronts for a few years, and when we remember or watch great match days from that time (like St Andrews in 1987) the team will forever have The Woolwich emblazoned across their chests.

The 90's seemed to be the computer sponsorship years for Charlton, not surprisingly in the lead up to the dot.com boom. First we had Viglen, then MESH computers names adorning our chests. My girlfriend actually bought a Viglen computer (in 1997) on the back of much persuasion from me ("if it's good enough for Charlton, then it's good enough for you!"), and I can confirm that it is still going strong (albeit with a different owner)! A typesetters that I dealt with in the late 90's also bought a whole bunch of Viglen PC's and keyboards, and they told me that they loved them. I cannot claim to have helped with that particular sale though...

I don't have much experience of MESH computers though, and have never heard of anyone owning one. While Viglen never really saw much benefit of their sponsorship on TV (compared to the previous and future sponsors), MESH certainly came aboard at exactly the right time. The first time Charlton wore MESH shirts was at Wembley in 1998 in the play off final, the Viglen shirt contract having ended a few days earlier. Super Clive, resplendent in his new MESH sponsored shirt, cut a dashing figure in front of the crowd, and duly smashed in a fantastic hat trick. All captured on film, video, and DVD, much to the MESH marketing managers delight I'm sure. I hope it helped sales.

After MESH, we had RedBus. This was a strange choice, for an investment company cannot get extra sales or such like, only exposure. It was therefore probably a vanity sponsorship, or possibly a tax dodge of some sort. They had plenty of TV time as we played in the Premiership throughout their tenure, but RedBus eventually had money troubles and their sponsorship was ended a year early I believe.

All:Sports, next up front and currently still our shirt sponsor, obviously do get sales based on our deal with them; not only through exposure, but by the tie-up we have with selling Charlton shirts in All:Sports 200-odd shops. All round good sense I would think. I have heard that they are having problems with the recent downturn in customer spending, and that may affect any continuation (renewal) of their deal which is due to end after this season. I think they would like to continue sponsorship, but if we get a better offer, who knows?

So, 25 years, six sponsors, none of whom have been embarrassing. We should be thankful that, unlike other clubs, we have not had to bow down to Chinese Beer, the local chemical company, the local Council, or the local garage and the like, for shirt sponsorship, yet...