In the 1930s the striker Inter was already advertising, but to see the sponsors on the shirts you had to wait until 1981. At the same time the ice cream businessman had found a trick…
In the beginning it was 100 square centimeters on the front of the shirts. A discount given by the Football Federation to clubs always desperate for money because the costs, as usual, were higher than the income and the presidents had to contribute money from it their own pockets if they didn’t want to drive the clubs into bankruptcy. There were no funds, trusts, foreign investors and all those issues that contemporary football knows very well. Back then there was only one man in charge, usually a wealthy businessman who was passionate about football, and perhaps particularly conscious of fame and newspaper headlines. It almost always happened that this gentleman lost a fortune by buying this or that player, whether Italian or foreign, and the fun was very always ending in tears.
