The Greatest Shirt Sponsor Ever is... Wang!

Yes, it's official - after seven weeks of rigorous voting and contentious debate, The Football Attic is proud to proclaim Wang as the Greatest Shirt Sponsor Ever!

The former American computer giant, whose name was once emblazoned on the shirts of Oxford United, beat off stiff opposition throughout, culminating in a titanic battle in the Final against Newcastle Brown Ale. Yet when Big Ben rang out to signal the end of our colossal vote-off (and the arrival of 2013), it was Wang who had undoubtedly gained the upper hand.

During the week-long Final itself we received a whopping 379 votes, and though the split was around 45%-55% in favour of Wang for most of the time, a last-day surge changed that share to 37%-63% by close of play.

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Greatest Shirt Sponsor Ever - The Final

Newcastle Brown & Wang! 

No, not a night out on Tyneside... well, maybe it is for some, but no, not here my fellows, for this is the Final of the Greatest Shirt Sponsor Ever!!!

After starting out with 96 sponsors from the annals of English and Scottish football, we're down to the final two. And what a journey... Stone cold classics such as Crown Paints, Sharp, JVC and Granada Bingo (shut up!) have all fallen by the wayside and it's the mid-80s stars of Oxford United (remember them?) with Wang Computers against the north east stalwarts Newcastle Brown Ale... for Newcastle United, obviously.

Once again, our thanks and gratitude go out to John Devlin for kindly allowing us to use his fantastic illustrations. John's work can be found at the True Colours site and he is also on Twitter so pay him a visit and give him a follow.

Rules:

Ah sod the rules, it's the Final!

Voting closes at 23:59 GMT on Monday 31st December - so we will all get to start 2013 safe in the knowledge that the Greatest Shirt Sponsor Ever will have been decided!

Right... Off you go!

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Greatest Shirt Sponsor Ever - Semi Finals

So we're down to the final four, and despite it looking like the Final was to be a re-run of the 1986 Milk Cup Final between Oxford and QPR, fate has intervened and made it a semi final encounter instead.

In the other semi, that there London meets Oop North so expect bare-chested barrel-shaped supporters and plenty of apples and pears... or something...

So, will it be an all-London final? Or will you all go for some full on Wang action (honestly, this stuff writes itself)? Or will we all be gannin' doon tha' toon for a bottle o' Newky Broon?  Ant n Dec... Spuggy...

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Greatest Shirt Sponsor Ever - Quarter Finals

From the 96 came just 8 - It's The Greatest Shirt Sponsor Ever Quarter Finals!

Round 4 ended last night and there were several more shock exits.  Both of Liverpool's remaining entries took a bow, falling to the mighty Wang (fnarrr) and a concerted campaign by Ipswich fans to keep Pioneer in.

And so we come to the final 8 and what a line up it is! But enough of this...I mean, seriously, I know no-one's reading it...I could just say what I want here...I could call Frankie Boyle a racist...he'd never know! As it is, I'm not going to say that as it's patently not true...or relevant...so...where was I?

Once again, our thanks and gratitude go out to John Devlin for kindly allowing us to use his fantastic illustrations. John's work can be found at the True Colours site and he is also on Twitter so pay him a visit and give him a follow.

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Greatest Shirt Sponsor Ever - Round 4

Yes it's Round 4 - The Round of 16 - of The Greatest Shirt Sponsor Ever!

Round 3 finished yesterday (Thursday) and as usual the results can be viewed here. Coventry finally bowed out to frankly more deserving sponsors, but the greatest shock of the round was Sharp, stalwart of Man U for 12 years, being ousted by QPR's Guinness. Honestly, is this the point we've reached? ;-)

Anyway, this is where it gets really interesting with the final 16 sponsors battling it out. Hitachi may have gone, but Crown Paints and Candy still fly the red flag, but the legendary CP faces seriously stiff competition in the form of Wang...stiff..Wang...is anybody actually reading this anyway?

Once again, our thanks and gratitude go out to John Devlin for kindly allowing us to use his fantastic illustrations. John's work can be found at the True Colours site and he is also on Twitter so pay him a visit and give him a follow.

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Greatest Shirt Sponsor Ever - Round 3

We've reached Round 3 - The Round of 16 - of The Greatest Shirt Sponsor Ever!

Round 2 ended on Friday and the results can be viewed here. And what a set of results they are! Hitachi defeated by Avco, Panasonic losing out to TDK and the biggest travesty of all, Granada Bingo losing to Blackburn's McEwans!!! ;-)

So with the first lot of seeded casualties, the remaining 32 sponsors now fight it out amongst themselves.

Once again, our thanks and gratitude go out to John Devlin for kindly allowing us to use his fantastic illustrations. John's work can be found at the True Colours site and he is also on Twitter so pay him a visit and give him a follow.

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Greatest Shirt Sponsor Ever - Round 2

It's time for Round 2 of The Greatest Shirt Sponsor Ever!

Round 1 ended on Friday and the results can be viewed here.

But now it's time for the big guns to enter the fray as the 32 seeded sponsors join the tournament!  At last, Crown Paints, Wang, Sharp, etc, get to flex their sponsorship muscles!

Not only that, but as you'll see, the sponsors themselves have been granted a makeover courtesy of John Devlin, author of football kit bible True Colours.

Our sincere thanks and gratitude go out to John for not only kindly allowing us to use his fantastic illustrations, but also for working so quickly to get the images to us. John's work can be found at the True Colours site and he is also on Twitter so pay him a visit and give him a follow.

Rules:

1) You are voting for the SPONSOR, not the team that it adorned.

2) Voting for Round 2 closes at midnight on Friday 30th November

3) This is a bit of fun... if you don't like the results, take a deep breath, smile and accept that democracy is flawed... ;-)

Let battle commence!

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Greatest Shirt Sponsor Ever - Round 1 (Matches 17-32)

It's finally here! The Vote for the Greatest Shirt Sponsor Ever!

Matches 1-16 kicked off yesterday and now it's time for the Sunday fixtures to take their place.

Just to repeat the Rules:

1) You are voting for the SPONSOR, not the team that it adorned.

2) Voting for Round 1 closes at midnight on Friday 23rd November

3) This is a bit of fun... if you don't like the results, take a deep breath, smile and accept that democracy is flawed... ;-)

And so... let the voting commence!

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Greatest Shirt Sponsor Ever - Round 1 (Matches 1-16)

It's finally here! The Vote for the Greatest Shirt Sponsor Ever!

As mentioned previously, this will be a knockout tournament comprising 96 teams. 32 of these have been seeded and will only appear in Round 2.  Therefore, Round 1 will be 32 matches between the 64 non-seeded teams.  NB, the list of seeded teams can be found in the post linked to above, so before I have to explain where Wang or Crown Paints are, take a look!  ;-)

I've split the First Round into two parts. This is so the page doesn't get ridiculously long and also because setting up the polls is taking longer than planned!

Rules - Just a few things to mention:

1) You are voting for the SPONSOR, not the team that it adorned.

2) Voting for Round 1 closes at midnight on Friday 23rd November

3) This is a bit of fun... if you don't like the results, take a deep breath, smile and accept that democracy is flawed... ;-)

And so... let the voting commence!

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Greatest Shirt Sponsor Ever - 1st Round Draw

The 1st round draw has taken place and here it is in full:

NB...Voting instructions will follow soon :)

Greatest Shirt Sponsor Ever 1st Round Draw (64 non seeded sponsors)



Chang (Everton) v Poll Withey (Norwich)
NTL (Celtic & Rangers) v NOBO (Brighton)
Peugeot (Coventry) v T-Mobile (WBA)
Bukta (Hibernian) v Reg Vardy (Sunderland)
Solvite (Watford) v Oki (Portsmouth)
Candy (Liverpool) v Fly Virgin (Crystal Palace)
Ora (Barnsley) v Laver (Sheff Utd)
Philips (Man City) v Maxwell (Derby)
British Caledonian (Brighton) v O2 (Arsenal)
Panasonic (Nottm Forest) v Autoglass (Chelsea)
Coors (Chelsea) v JVC (Aberdeen)
JCT600 (Bradford) v Britannia (Stoke)
Ind Coope (Leicester) v Lewisham (Millwall)
Auto Trader (Reading) v Ericsson (QPR)
Saab (Man City) v (BT) Cellnet (Middlesbrough)
Skol (Nottm Forest) v Ian Skelly (Motherwell)
Courage (Reading) v Samsung (Chelsea)
Motorola (Motherwell) v GMB (Fulham)
Auto Windscreens (Birmingham) v Dagenham Motors (West Ham)
Greene King (Ipswich) v Ricoh (Stoke)
Unipart (Oxford Utd) v Truman (Wimbledon)
Carlsberg (Wimbledon) v Carlsberg (Liverpool)
Subaru (Coventry) v JD Sports (Oldham)
Greenalls (Newcastle) v Good Year (Wolves)
Dr Martens (West Ham) v ICI Perspex (Blackburn)
Hewlett Packard (Tottenham) v Capital One (Nottm Forest)
Elonex (Wimbledon) v Shipstones (Nottm Forest)
Bass (Derby) v Muller (Aston Villa)
Sanderson (Sheff Wed & Southampton) v Finlux (Sheff Wed)
Granada Bingo (Coventry) v Carling (Celtic & Rangers)
Vaux (Sunderland) v Wrangler (Notts County)
Fly Emirates (Arsenal) v Fisons (Ipswich)

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