Arsenal suffered a major dent in their 2023/24 Premier League title aspirations with a shocking defeat to Aston Villa at the Emirates Stadium. The Gunners were undone by former manager Unai Emery’s resurgent side and are now behind reigning champions Manchester City heading into the final stretch of the campaign.
For some fans, the loss to Villa felt like a case of Arsenal throwing away the title for the second straight season. They endured a similar end-of-season breakdown to lose the championship to Man City last year. However, there is some blame being put on an exterior factor, acting as a possible ‘curse’ that holds them back.
What is the Prime Curse?
Prime are, for those unknowing, the official Hydration Partner for Arsenal. This means the popular energy drink company, started by popular social media influencers Logan Paul and KSI in 2022, provides energy drinks for the club’s staff or players to use for training sessions or matches. The drink is also sold at the Emirates Stadium for their matches.
Even in Mikel Arteta’s press conference, a Prime bottle is smartly placed right in front of the manager for added advertising purposes. KSI, a lifelong Gooner, played a key role in helping Prime land a major sponsorship deal with Arsenal.
However, some paranoid Arsenal fans believe that this association with the popular energy drinks company is reason for them ‘bottling’ their title charge.
But it’s not only Arsenal supporters complaining about the ‘curse’ that the energy drinks company brings to any football club that signs a deal with them.
While Arsenal was the first major football side that inked a sponsorship agreement with Prime, the brand has kept expanding to other parties too.
Indeed, in 2023, Prime was able to sign deals with Bayern Munich and FC Barcelona to expand their sponsorship portfolios. They became the Official Hydration partner for Barcelona, a similar deal as the Arsenal one before also becoming Bayern’s official Isotonic partner.
These deals were extremely lucrative for Prime. Their official association with massive European football clubs – who have millions of fans all around the world – only helped ensure that more people get to know about the brand and start purchasing it more often because of their clubs’ association with it.
However, some feel like this agreement acts like a bad omen for football clubs.
Not only Arsenal, but many fans have noted how Barcelona and Bayern Munich experienced deterioration in their form after signing with Prime.
Bayern, for one, have been unable to win the Bundesliga title for the first time in 12 years. Barcelona have also failed to properly defend their La Liga championship and are likely to lose it to Real Madrid – being eight points behind them with seven matches to play.
Neither Barcelona nor Bayern have won anything since their partnership began. Barca lost in the Spanish Supercopa final to Real Madrid and were eliminated in the Copa Del Rey quarter-finals. The Bavarians were also eliminated in the second round of the DFB Pokal.
Hence, there is some weight into this theory that the energy drinks company is draining the football clubs’ own energy to win major trophies for some strange reason.
With that being said, Prime has signed multi-year deals with all these clubs. There is enough reason to believe that this ‘curse’ could be broken soon if either of the three win the Champions League this season. While KSI will be absolutely gutted if his beloved Arsenal side fails to win anything this season, the Prime Founders will be thrilled with the numbers the brand is making.
In 2023, the energy drinks brand reportedly surpassed over $1.2 billion (£963 million) revenue in sales – more than four times what it made in 2022. Curse or no curse, Prime Energy is booming thanks to its association with these clubs – who have a lot to do to prove that their association with the brand isn’t a self-destructive tactic.
