Debt to society

Tragedy has a slow release in football. Contrary to the gloating reactionary belief of fans who swarm all over their rivals' messageboards, even relegation is a long, tedious and faintly dull death, predictable months in advance.

It is with great regret and shock, however, for Oxblogger to announce that the Us have announced a new [cough] short sponsor.

There was a time when sponsorship was a novelty in the British game, Hafnia on Everton's shirts, or Liverpool and Hitachi, both had a mystic glamour about them. Then clubs and corporate brands became entwined; Sharp and JVC both living symbiotically with Manchester United and Arsenal respectively.

Early sponsors of the U's were things like the Saturday Journal, the Sunday People and then Wang computers during the glory years. Unipart were part of the fabric of the club before internet service provider Domino resided over a crap season and a crap, green, shirt. Now Buildbase, a proper Oxford company, are positioned, pride of place, front and centre, on the famous yellow shirt.

Whilst we accept that it is a key component of the revenue mix of a modern football club, short sponsorship smacks of desperation. Not only this, our short sponsor is not a beer manufacturer or aspirant car dealership but the bloody Debt Dr. A brand that smacks of a fat middle manager and victim of a financial services cull, making a living from the risible scourge of our want-it-all-now culture. Above all it's a crap logo with a crap website containing tortured medical based puns. Truly pitiful brand management at the Yellows, the new commercial manager should be shot.