How Premier League Teams Integrate Music Into Their Branding

Some fans leave soccer matches early to beat the traffic, others leave early to play concerts in Belgrade.

That was Ed Sheeran’s excuse for leaving Ipswich Town’s first home match in the Premier League since before he was 15 years old and smoking hand-rolled cigarettes.

He left Portman Road at half-time in the Tractor Boys’ 2-0 loss to Liverpool, but had spent the week before that being front-and-center of Ipswich’s promotional material ahead of the 2024/25 season. Anybody who didn’t know the pop star might have mistaken him for a new signing when the Premier League released a video of him driving around a field in a blue tractor singing Thin Lizzy’s “The Boys Are Back in Town.”

Sheeran has been sponsoring Ipswich Town’s shirt since they were in League One, the third tier of English soccer, and recently acquired a small stake in the club. Ahead of this new Premier League season, he has been more noticeable though, handing out pies and appearing in interviews on the club’s YouTube channel, with his song “Castle on the Hill”, which pays homage to the village he grew up in near Ipswich, used as the video’s backing track.

Ipswich aren’t the only Premier League club to collaborate with local rock stars this summer. The city of Birmingham could argue that it is the birthplace of the industrial revolution and the industrial music genre of heavy metal. Aston Villa played on this by getting the Birmingham-born “Prince of Darkness” Ozzy Osbourne and his Black Sabbath bandmate Geezer Butler to launch the team’s new kit in a lighthearted video to the tune of Sabbath’s 1970 hit song “Paranoid.”

Neil Joyce, CEO of fan engagement consultancy firm CLV Group, says this “convergence of music, sport and stardom presents a huge opportunity for football clubs to both expand their brand reach and connect with previously locked or emerging fandoms.”

This is often seen with the biggest stars and the biggest teams, such as Taylor Swift’s impact on the Kansas City Chiefs and American football in general, bringing in record-breaking numbers of female viewers.

Joyce highlights how Noel Gallagher designed the font for one of Manchester City’s shirts this season, and how Adidas and Manchester United have collaborated on lifestyle merchandise with the Stone Roses. He says that as clubs can use these crossovers to identify and convert new supporters, “leveraging these kinds of collaborations will be crucial for long-term success.”

Arguably, the UK’s two main cultural exports are soccer and music. Many artists might be from London or Manchester, but clubs outside these cities can also use local artists to help create a narrative and character around the club that resonates with potential new fans while keeping true to their local roots. Rather than alienating existing fans, both Ipswich and Villa’s collaborations have reminded people of how connected they are with their local communities.

Further down the English soccer pyramid, other clubs are getting in on the act. Semi-professional side Northwich Victoria, in the North-West Counties Football League, the eighth tier of English soccer, played an FA Cup preliminary round match recently wearing a shirt themed on the town’s former resident Rupert Holmes’ 1979 hit “Escape (The Pina Colada Song).”