With the pre-season kicking off next month teams have started releasing their kit for the next season. Among the other released jerseys, Eintracht Frankfurt’s one has become a subject of scrutiny.
The colour theme of the home jersey for 24/25 season is predominantly white with red sleeves and a solid black print around the neck. The jersey kept up with the traditional Black, White and Red colour scheme of the club.
The jersey looks clean and neat but eagle-eyed fans on social media found an anomaly. Soon after that a photo of Robin Koch wearing the new kit started circulating that showed, the cigarette company, Marlboro as the jersey sponsor.
Without fail the jersey looked like an inspired one from the box design with the same colour palettes. But the picture was an altered one. Yes, photoshopped to perfection.
Just like any other team in the world, The Eagles are also not permitted to use any tobacco manufacturing company as their kit sponsor.
The actual sponsor of the Frankfurt kits is Indeed, a job search portal.
But does that mean there has never been a jersey that had a tobacco manufacturer as its sponsor? No. There have been multiple instances in sports, not only football where teams have been sponsored by such companies.
One of the most notable ones was right on the doorsteps of Germany. Since 1977, the Austrian side Austria Vienna were in partnership with the tobacco company ‘Austria Tabak’.
They even changed their name to Austria Memphis in 1977 with shirt sponsor ‘Memphis’, a cigarette brand under the aforementioned tobacco company. After rules were made tighter in the early 2000s, the team reverted back to their original name, Austria Wien by ending their partnership with the tobacco manufacturer.
But what of the jersey? The reason for Frankfurt’s jersey is to commemorate their ’80s and ’90s era when the jerseys where had a similar theme with white being the base colour. After the launch of the jersey, old-school fans of the clubs rejoiced and looked at it with nostalgia.
‘The jersey brings back feelings of youth for me. I immediately think of Yeboah, Bein and Okocha. It always takes a little time to get used to a new jersey at the beginning. I like it,’ a 52-year fan told Bild. An adult’s kit is priced at €95 and the ones for the kids are €75.
Another significance of this jersey is, that this will be the final jersey of Frankfurt with the Nike logo on it. From next season, Frankfurt will have Adidas as their kit design. So before they go, one last memorable jersey was thoroughly due.
