Australian Rules Melbourne FC to be Without Major Shirt Sponsor

Australian Rules team Melbourne Football club will start this year’s AFL preseason competition without a major sponsor on its jumper.

The Demons have opted to partner with The Reach Foundation, the charity established by former Melbourne president Jim Stynes which aims to help Victoria’s disadvantaged youth, for the preseason competition.

“Here was an opportunity where we’ve come into our pre-season program without a major sponsor on our jumper, and we took our inspiration from FC Barcelona, which for many years had Unicef on the front of their shirt,” Demons chief executive Cameron Schwab said.

“So we thought – let’s put the Reach logo on our jumper in recognition of the unbelievable work they do with young people. We can wear it proudly, and recognise that the relationship is even more tangible and public than perhaps it’s ever been.”

Current Melbourne president Don McLardy also worked alongside Stynes at Reach.

Schwab is confident the club will have a playing strip sponsor in time for the start of the season proper.

“We think we’re still very much on track with our sponsorship. There’s no panic stations,” he said.

“We’re having some really important and major discussions with our major sponsorship. We weren’t prepared to compromise those at such an important time, as part of the long-term growth of the club.

“We’re very confident that we can work through and get a very good outcome.”

The Demons were in a dire financial position in 2008, but wiped off $5 million in debt in two years under the leadership of Stynes.

by Ismail Uddin