PornHub sponsorship banned from university football team shirts after being deemed 'totally unacceptable'
Rutherford Raiders of the University of Kent were banned from using the pornography website as their main sponsors
Your support helps us to tell the story
This election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.
The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.
Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.
PornHub has already had to take a step into the football world after they resorted to pleading with users to stop uploading Brazil’s 7-1 mauling to Germany, citing “Our public humiliation category is full”. But their second venture into the sport has ended sharply after their sponsorship of a university football team was immediately banned.
A football team at the University of Kent were stripped of using the kit that has PornHub plastered on the front after officials deemed it “totally inappropriate”.
The Rutherford Raiders, a college team that is part of the University of Kent, were struggling to find sponsorship and decided to use the PornHub logo on their new shirts in what was originally intended as a joke.
However, the University didn’t see the funny side and quickly put a stop to Raiders using the strip, with a threat to ban them from the inter-college league they feature in also being issued.
A spokesman for the University of Kent said that the sponsorship was not – and would never be – sanctioned by officials and blasted the actions of the team.
“The University of Kent sports department would never sanction sponsorship of this type – it is totally inappropriate,” said Martin Herrema.
“The team has been spoken with and will not be allowed to wear the shirts in question at any time.
“We take this issue very seriously and inter-college sports teams, which are the responsibility of Kent Sport, must present any potential sponsorship and/or logos for approval.”
However, clearly unhappy with the ban, one of the team’s players who chose to remain unnamed claimed that there was no reasoning behind the sanction, and cited the University’s cricket team’s sponsorship of alcoholic brand Kingfisher as a way of double-standards.
“We are struggling to see why they are having a problem,” said one of the players. “The university cricket team are sponsored by Kingfisher, which is also an age-restricted product.
“In my opinion the decision is made by people in Kent Sport that are out of touch with what’s socially acceptable.
“It’s hard for football teams to find a sponsor. Both Kent Sport and Rutherford refused to give us any money.
“Clearly Pornhub did because there’s was an opportunity to create a bit of attention.
“I personally haven’t come across anyone yet that has found it anything other than funny.”
The football team’s Twitter account made light of the picture after it went viral, using a well-known Anchorman quote to show the level of attention the sponsorship had received.
It remains to be seen whether a Premier League club chooses to follow suit, but we reckon it’s highly unlikely to see this season’s champions rocking a porn company name anywhere near their home stadium.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments