Marketing in football today is huge business: It seems a long time ago now that Kettering Town became the first English club to adopt shirt sponsorship when, in January 1976, they took to the field with the words `Kettering Tyres` emblazoned across their collective chests. This simple move changed the face of English football forever as Liverpool quickly followed with their Hitachi sponsorship deal.

As the sponsored shirt phenomenon grew, a simple yet clever marketing trick crept into the game. Prior to this point, the football fan only had to buy one replica shirt and that lasted as long as the shirt itself. Now, we had to buy a new shirt every year as sponsors and new kits came and went. Today the replica shirt industry
is worth vast amounts of money. With printers even charging by the letter for named shirts, it`s cheaper to have Nani than El Chicharito!

The largest football market is now in the Far East and English teams haven`t been slow to make their mark there. With English football readily available in countries such as Japan and South Korea, football is big business and there is no better way to grow your following than to have a player from the Far East in your squad. While footballers such as Park Ji-Sung have undoubtedly brought something to their clubs, it has been cynically suggested in some quarters that English teams have signed some Far Eastern players purely for their commercial value.

It is inevitable when looking at different marketing and commercial strategies throughout England to come to the conclusion that the bigger clubs have such a major advantage over smaller teams. Although this season we have seen Blackpool come from the Championship and be able to compete in the Premiership, invariably those with the money will rise to the top. Although the likes of Michel Platini have been talking again about salary caps, it is hard to see this situation changing.

For the big clubs, sponsorship and television money are the main sources of income which in turn lead to higher prices at the turnstiles. For the lower clubs, shirt sponsorship is still an option, but this will tend to come from smaller, often local firms without a huge budget.

More creative marketing is appearing all the time and can include such diverse elements as credit cards and iPhone applications.

Overall, marketing highlights the divide between smaller and larger clubs in England. Television money is the goal and whereas a league two team may be lucky if they appear once a year, premiership clubs will be shown on watch live football free time and time again thus getting their brands into our living rooms and pubs many times over the course of a season.

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