Since 1981: 40 years of shirt sponsorship

In 1981, Italian football teams were given permission to put sponsors on the front of their kits for the first time. Forty years on, we look at the variety of brands who have adorned the Giallorossi shirt...

Back in 1981, Lega Serie A gave permission to 16 clubs to put a sponsor on shirts that had gone unadorned with branding for decades. It was a revolutionary moment in many ways for clubs on the peninsula - clubs who had previously only been able to count on ticket sales and player trading as realistic ways of making any money.

Roma's president at the time, Dino Viola, had big ambitions for his team after winning the Coppa Italia - and, with a strong background in business, was well aware of the prospects opened up by the new legislation too.

Barilla – 1981-1994 (573 games)

The first partnership would become an iconic one, and not just because of its historical resonance. A bond built over 13 years saw countless advertisements involving the club's players ("Obrigado Barilla!" as Paulo Roberto Falcao famously once said) and means many fans even today feel tied to the famous pasta brand.

Barilla remain the longest shirt sponsor in the club's history, lasting 13 years and 574 official games. It was a fruitful partnership too: during that period Roma won the Serie A title in 1983, three Coppa Italia crowns and reached the final of the European Cup.

In that final, however, the Giallorossi did not have Barilla on their shirts - as European rules did not permit such arrangements on that occasion. The brand remains in club history in another way, however: in 1993 it was on the shirt when a certain Francesco Totti made his debut for the team.

Nuova Tirrena Assicurazioni – 1994-95 (39 games)

The season in which Francesco Totti scored his first goal for the club (September 1994 against Foggia) was also the first in 14 years with a new sponsor on the front of the club shirts. Nuova Tirrena Assicurazioni (an insurance firm) came on board, with only the first game of the season (in the Coppa Italia against Fiorenzuola) being played without their presence on the shirt.

Ina Assitalia – 1995-2002 (309 games)

Replacing one insurance firm with another, the historic Italian company (founded in 1912) came on board ahead of the 1995-96 season. It would become a strong partnership in the vein of the first Barilla deal - one pivotal to the success of the club, for so many reasons.

One of them, perhaps unsurprisingly, being related to Francesco Totti. It was Ina Assitalia who underpinned the triangular 'Torneo città di Roma' in February 1997 that would see a sparkling Totti play so well that he convinced the Roma hierarchy not to consider selling him to Sampdoria. Without that tournament, who knows how differently things might have been.

All parties, of course, were rewarded with success: Roma winning their third Scudetto in 2001 with Totti the talisman.

Mazda – 2002-2005 (152 games)

Onwards to car manafacturers, as Japanese giants Mazda entered proceedings in 2002. Three years later, Totti had cemented his place as one of the best in the world while wearing the brand on his shirt.

Banca Italease – 2005-06 (28 games)

The Giallorossi started the 2005-06 campaign without a sponsor, after the conclusion of the three-year agreement with Mazda. For a while, the club occasionally turned out with individual sponsors for specific matches (e.g Fiuggi water, for a game against Juventus).

But from the halfway stage of the campaign onwards it was Banca Italease who sat on the front of the shirt, proving something of a good omen as Roma won 11 straight league games (a club record) in the final stretch of the season.

Wind – 2007-2013 (299 games)

After another season without a sponsor - bar a few one-off collaborations - ahead of the 2007-08 season it was the turn of telecommunications firm Wind to embark on a new story with the club.

Roma would win one Supercoppa and one Coppa Italia over the ensuing six years - while the kits the club wore in that period (along with the sponsor on the front of them) would become iconic in their own way among fans around the world.

Qatar Airways – 2018-2021 (156 games)

Roma went five years without a main sponsor following the end of the deal with Wind, preferring instead to offer exposure to a variety of causes at different points in that period (for the 2013-14 season, for example, Roma Cares was on the front of the shirt throughout the campaign).

In April 2018, however, Qatar Airways came on board - just in time to be present on the shirts for the Champions League semi-final against Liverpool that season.

Fast-forward three years, and the Giallorossi would conclude the partnership with another European semi-final - this time against Manchester United in the Europa League.

Zytara (DigitalBits) – 2021

On 27 July 2021 the club announced a ground-breaking three-year agreement with Zytara which would see their associated brand Zytara feature on the front of the team's kits.

A new chapter for the club, with a partnership that also promises numerous innovative and cutting-edge collaborations over the coming months.