The football league restarts, wine & food scores between shirt sponsors and club supplies

Here we go, the whistle has sounded for the most beloved event of Italian sports fans: the Italian Serie A championship has restarted, archiving the first day. Not that the round ball that most makes people dream and, at the same time, suffer, has left fans in “solitude” for a long time; calendars, in fact, are increasingly “clogged”, and this is one of the most discussed issues. Yet, when the jerseys with the colors of the heart return to the green playing rectangle, for the first day of the championship that has just ended, the excitement is the same as always and is ageless. Yeah, the jerseys. They, too, have changed over the years, from materials to graphics, evolving with the needs of marketing since merchandising, after all, is “pure oxygen for clubs”, as are the sponsors that have taken off: no longer is just one seen at chest height, although it remains the main one; lettering and logos, in fact, take advantage of as many inches as possible in the game jersey. Looking back to a more or less recent past, the choice of matching a brand to a club’s jersey has created real myths and some success stories, because soccer, as is well known, is a global sport like few others, and food-related companies have been the protagonists of memorable pairings: from Buitoni in the days of Maradona’s Napoli to Cirio with Lazio, which, on a par with Parma (the sponsor was Parmalat), managed to win both in Italy and in Europe. And then the “unbeatable” Milan with Motta written between the red and black stripes; many, then, will remember Barilla on the Roma jersey or Rana on that of his hometown team, Hellas Verona. And again, Giovanni Trapattoni’s Inter of “records” had the words Misura on their black-and-blue uniforms; extraordinary champions such as Baggio and Del Piero wore the Juventus jersey with the Danone sponsor. But the list of famous examples would be really long, and while it is true that today the world food resists on T-shirts, it can be said that it has less weight than in the past, in an era where “giants” from abroad have also arrived in our league, an effect of globalization that, of course, has not spared even soccer.
But prominent names in the industry, along with more territorial brands, are nonetheless also present for the 2024/2025 Seria A season (which, by the way, has among its partners the well-known Philadelphia spreadable cheese). Let’s start, in alphabetical order, with Atalanta, now one of the most important and benchmark clubs nationally and beyond, as evidenced by its recent Europa League victory, which has the Acqua Lete brand on its black-and-light blue shirts, previously seen on those of Napoli. Among the most anticipated teams, with so much participation, for the first time, in the Champions League, is Bologna, which bears on its chest the name of the Group of the patron, Saputo, an international company specializing in dairy products, while the brand of the Bolognese potato “Selenella” stands out on the back of the shirt. Cagliari, the team that symbolizes Sardinia, has historically focused on products with a link to its land (fans will remember Ichnusa beer and, in more distant years, Pecorino Sardo cheese); for this season, as a “jersey sponsor”, in addition to the confirmation of Arborea, a producer of milk and cheese from the island, there is the Sardinian brewery Doppio Malto. Empoli will seek a new and “sweet” salvation with the blue jerseys that will have, on the sleeve, the logo of Sammontana ice creams, also from Empoli, a partnership that has lasted for many years. Hellas Verona started the championship in an extraordinary way with a surprising but well-deserved victory over Antonio Conte’s Napoli: a debut with “bubbles” and with the 958 Santero logo in full view; the Piedmontese wine company was, in fact, the main Sponsor of Hellas Verona on the very first day of the season celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Scudetto won in 1984/85. The Piedmontese wine brand has announced that it will be a partner not only of Hellas Verona, but also of other clubs, from Serie A and B. Turning to Napoli, worth mentioning is the presence of the Coca-Cola logo on the material used by the first team and Primavera team during training sessions and before all official matches of the Neapolitan club. Torino as a “second main partner” has Fratelli Beretta, a collaboration that has been going on for a long time with the famous Salumi Group, which has as many as 19 PDO/PGI products in its portfolio. And finally, Venezia, which returned to the Serie A stage this year, has chosen Cynar Spritz as its main sponsor. Created right in the Veneto region, in 1950, by Angelo Dalle Molle, an entrepreneur and philanthropist from Mestre, Cynar Spritz is part of Gruppo Campari.
Sponsors that, although not present in the official uniform, are multiplying, at various levels, with Italian wine & food brands and companies flanking Serie A soccer teams. Starting with wine (but particularly “rich” is also the presence of food-related brands) with Bologna that, among its Premium partners, has Vini d’Italia from bottler Alessandro Berselli. Cagliari among the Training partners presents Silvio Carta, a historic company in Sardinia that was founded in the early 1950s and, in addition to producing the well-known Vernaccia di Oristano, also specializes in spirits. And then Cantina di Santadi, a “giant” for winemaking in Sardinia, with 650 hectares of vineyards from which nearly 2 million bottles arrive, distributed in a wide portfolio of labels with solid quality consistency. Empoli has among its sponsors the Sienese brewery L’Olmaia; from Chianti Classico, a fine production area in Tuscany, comes instead the Vallepicciola winery (107 hectares under vine), which is Official wine partner of Fiorentina, for an all-Tuscan partnership. Genoa, Italy’s oldest club, as Official hospitality supplier counts on “La Baia del Sole”, the Federici family winery located in Luni, on the border between Liguria and Tuscany. Inter’s Official wine supplier, on the other hand, has long been the Santa Margherita brand, whose Prosecco bubbles will once again accompany the Italian champions, who in the current championship sport the second star on their shirts. For years, wetting the toasts of Juventus’ victories, including the last Coppa Italia, has been Ferrari's sparkling wine, an icon of Trentodoc and confirming the strong link with the Juventus club. Lazio, among its Official supplier hospitality has two wine companies, Caparzo, a prestigious Brunello di Montalcino company owned by Elisabetta Gnudi Angelini, of historic biancoceleste faith, and Vini Fantini, a group with roots in Abruzzo but embracing all of Southern Italy, led by Valentino Sciotti. In the category of supporters of Lecce, a Salento club aiming for another salvation, is Paololeo, a winery from Salento located within the Negroamaro Park, established by the will of Paolo Leo. The Wine Supplier of Roma, led on the bench by the flag-bearer Daniele De Rossi, is, on the other hand, Valdo Valdobbiadene, among the largest producers of Prosecco while Torino has among its Official suppliers the bubbles of its region, Piedmont, again with Santero 958 and the wines of Montaribaldi, a Barbaresco producer that has in its portfolio the famous wines of the territory, Barolo and Barbaresco in primis. Finally, the Venezia, where local sponsors include Canella, a company that produces Bellini, one of the most famous cocktails made in Italy, invented in 1948 by Giuseppe Cipriani, head bartender at Harry’s Bar in Venice, who named it after the Venetian painter Giovanni Bellini, because of the pinkish color that reminded him of that of an angel’s robe in one of his paintings.