Germany’s first football shirt sponsor

In 1973, the head of the alcohol brand Jägermeister, Gunter Mast, decided he wanted to sponsor his local football team Eintracht Braunschweig.

However, under the rules of the West German Football Federation, the DFB, advertising on shirts was banned.

He launched a legal challenge against the rules and initially got around them by changing the club’s crest to the logo of the drink.

Shirt sponsorship is now a multi-million-pound industry around the world.

Bernd Gersdorff played for Eintracht Braunschweig between 1969 and 1976. He has been speaking to Tim O’Callaghan about his memories of this period.

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(Photo: Mast with two players from Eintracht Braunschweig with the new sponsored shirts. Credit: Rust\Ullstein Bild via Getty Images)