Melbourne Victory announce new shirt sponsor for ACL campaign

Melbourne Victory have moved quickly to put aside the controversy over their front-of-shirt sponsor.

Melbourne’s Keisuke Honda in action against Daegu FC in the Asian Champions League. Victory were forced to play without a sponsor on the front of their shirts. Picture: AAP

Melbourne Victory have moved quickly to put aside the controversy over their front-of-shirt sponsor, announcing a new deal with Chinese company TCL for the rest of their Asian Champions League campaign.

Just hours after issuing a statement saying they would not enter into an agreement with Kaishi Entertainment, the club revealed that TCL had taken up the option to have their name on the front of the club’s jersey for the prestigious tournament.

Victory were forced into a backflip just hours before Tuesday’s 3-1 loss to Daegu FC in the opening game of their group after concerns were raised over Kaishi Entertainment’s links to online gambling.

In a major embarrassment, the A-League champions were forced to play against the Koreans in a clean strip, one without a sponsor’s name on the front of the jersey after posts on social media had brought the issues around Kaishi Entertainment to light.

Victory issued a statement yesterday morning, confirming the decision not to proceed with the initial sponsorship deal.

“Melbourne Victory wishes to advise after further investigation and consideration, it will not be entering into an agreement with Kaishi Entertainment during the AFC Champions League or in any other capacity,” the club said.

“The club’s concerns remain that this company has links to online gambling, thus sits outside AFC guidelines and our internal policies, despite their representations otherwise.

“The club would again like to thank the FFA and AFC for their support and assistance on the matter. A new AFC Champions League front-of-shirt partner will be announced later today.”

It did not take long, however, for Victory to announce the new deal with TCL, a leading Chinese consumer electronics company.

TCL is already one of the major sponsors at Victory.

“We are grateful for the commitment TCL has shown us, adding the ACL front-of-shirt property to their partnership,” Victory CEO Trent Jacobs said.

“Our relationship with TCL is built on mutual respect and shared values so it was a strong fit for us.

“TCL is a multinational electronics company with significant business interests in Asia and we look forward to working with them.”

It was a bad week for Australian clubs regarding jersey stuff-ups.

Sydney FC were forced to play in their away strip in the 0-0 draw with Ulsan Hyundai in their opening ACL game on Wednesday night after the match officials deemed there would have been a clash with the Korean club’s away strip. This was no fault of the Sky Blues as the AFC had approved the jerseys of all clubs during the official draw in December.