Which football teams have won the league without a shirt sponsor? | The Knowledge

Plus: non-football athletes wearing football crests on their kit; and teams who were sponsored by news organisations

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“Chelsea are firmly in the title race despite what their manager says,” wrote Will Nichols before Christmas. “But who was the last team to win the English top flight without a shirt sponsor? Has it been done more recently in another country?”

Chelsea’s conscious uncoupling from the title race doesn’t change the fact that this is a cracking question. Let’s start with the English top flight. Knowledge regular Dirk Maas has trawled the brilliant True Colours website – which, if you are the type of person who reads this column, is likely to be an endless source of serotonin – to find the answer: Aston Villa in 1980-81. Not content with using only 14 players (if you’re under the age of about 40, let that sink in) all season, they didn’t have a shirt sponsor either.

Brighton & Hove Albion British Caledonian

Coventry Talbot

Everton Hafnia

Liverpool Hitachi

Middlesbrough Datsun Cleveland

Nottingham Forest Panasonic

Southampton Rank Xerox

Stoke Ricoh

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