Manchester City, Arsenal, AC Milan, Real Madrid, Lyon, AS Roma – are all examples that big sponsorship deals from the Middle East are rather common in European football teams. This week we can add another (fictional) name to that rather illustrious list of footballing giants: AFC Richmond.
The made-up West London football team is the setting of Apple TV+’s new original series Ted Lasso, which sees Jason Sudeikis play an upbeat, small-time American Football coach who is appointed as manager of the fictional English Premier League side. What is equally as fictional is the club’s main sponsor, the Gulf-based airline DubaiAir.
The logo of DubaiAir is prominent throughout the show, being plaster across the club’s grey kit, part of the stadium’s advertising hoarding and Sudeikis’ character, Ted Lasso, even boards a trans-Atlantic flight on the faux carrier.
The premise of the Apple TV+ show was actually taken from a series of adverts, made in 2013 and 2014 to promote the US network NBC’s coverage of English Premier League. In the adverts, Sudeikis introduces Lasso, who is utter unsuitability for the job and gave no indication of why he was given it.
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