Why Inter Milan DIDN'T have a shirt sponsor against AC Milan

The Italian side do not have a sponsor on their jersey in the Champions League against AC Milan. Here’s why.

Inter take on AC Milan in the Champions League semi-final at San Siro in what is one of the most intriguing and ferocious rivalries in world football. Italy’s second biggest city is split into two on a night where both teams will try to secure an advantage going into the second leg next week. 

In this game, it will be Pioli’s side who have home advantage in the first leg and the fans will swap sides for the game next week hoping to book a place in the final.

The famous red and black stripes go up against the blue and black in what is the first meeting in a European competition between the two since 2005, when AC Milan emerged victorious.

 Inter will do so, however, without a sponsor on their shirts, as it emerged that the company with whom they had a contract did not fulfil their part of the deal.

Why do Inter not have a sponsor on their jersey?

Inter, despite signing a deal worth €85 million (£75m/$94m) in September 2021, had not received any payments this season from shirt sponsor DigitalBits. Back in November, Inter’s corporate chief executive, Alessandro Antonello, confirmed that the club was looking for a replacement sponsor. 

The same problem occurred with AS Roma, who had also used the blockchain company as the main shirt partner, meaning that in April of this year, both clubs dropped the use of the logo.

Inter published a statement saying “we understand that the crisis in the cryptocurrency sector, which worsened during the second quarter of the year 2022, significantly affected the ability of the client to fulfil its obligations. We are reserving all the actions and remedies to protect our contractual interests and rights and, in the meantime, we removed the logos of the partner from our website, billboards and jerseys of the youth and women’s sector teams, while retaining, at the moment, the presence of the sponsor on the jersey of the first team.” Obviously this has now been a decision carried over to the men’s team.