Preston North End to have 'non betting' shirt sponsor next season

For the last few seasons 32Red have sponsored the shirts and before that Tempobet and 888.

It has meant junior replica shirts have had to carry a different shirt sponsor logo because of betting rules regarding Under-18s.

However, Peter Ridsdale has announced that a new local 'non betting partner' will be on the front of the shirts for the 2021/22 campaign.

Ridsdale, the representative of PNE owner Trevor Hemmings, issued a long statement on the club's official website on Sunday morning covering a range of topics.

With regards the sponsorship, Ridsdale said: "Finding good sponsors that work with us and also pay competitive monies is difficult.

"Some years ago many football clubs were sponsored by alcohol companies and then that sector was prohibited. This gap was taken up by betting companies.

"Indeed if you take away front of shirt sponsors who are directly connected to their clubs owners, by far the greatest balance of front of shirt sponsors in the top two divisions are betting companies.

"We have been grateful for the income received from the betting sector and for the last four years from 32Red. We do however recognise that many of our supporters have grave misgivings in such relationships and of course it means that replica shirts for our supporters aged under 18 cannot be the same as the ones being worn by our first team squad.

"In thanking 32Red and all other sponsors in recent years, I am able to confirm that we will be announcing in the coming weeks a new front of shirt sponsorship deal with a local non betting partner that we are absolutely delighted with and we believe that our supporters will be too.

"This will give us plenty of time to get the new logos onto the 2021/22 kit in time for launch in July."

On the subject of season tickets, Ridsdale said an announcement would be made shortly on details for 2021/22.

"We have held off putting season tickets on sale for next season until we have clarity of the Government's policy on the return of fans," said Ridsdale.

"The last thing that we wanted to do was to have a stop start selling programme that happened last September. We now appear more confident that we will be able to welcome you back in August when the new season starts and we will therefore be looking to announce season ticket details soon.

"We will endeavour to get the balance right between getting back to some sort of normal income levels that the club needs to sustain finances going forward, whilst taking into account the impact that the pandemic has had on our supporters incomes and rewarding your loyalty.

"We hope that you will be pleased and acknowledge this when details are announced shortly."

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