Ed Sheeran has revealed that he instigated his sponsorship of the Blues’ first-team kits for 2021/22 and is looking forward to some of the perks which come with it.
Framlingham-based singer-songwriter Sheeran’s sponsorship of Town’s shirts for the campaign ahead was announced earlier in the month with the kits bearing symbols relating to his upcoming tour.
"How it all kicked off, I started sponsoring Framlingham Town U11 girls’ team,” Sheeran told BBC Radio 1. "I got emailed and they were like ‘can you get our kit?’, so I got the kit.
"And then I wondered how it is to sponsor Ipswich because Ipswich’s sponsor was up that season. They were Magical Vegas and Magical Vegas gave it to Carers Trust for a bit.
"I just enquired, I was like ‘do you guys need a sponsor?’ and they were like ‘yeah, for sure’. It’s been a cool process.
"I called them, it must have been around the end of the Divide tour because we did the shirts with them for the last Divide gig in Ipswich, I did an Ipswich Town kit with Divide on.
"It must have been then that I asked. It’s been a long process, it’s been a long, long process of getting things in order.
"The reaction’s been great. I think the positive reaction stems from the negative reaction to the European Super League. It’s like the polar opposite of really, really, really rich people who own teams and monetise the team, and people who love a team and want to see a team do well. I think that’s why people are so into it.
"Ipswich have new owners and I think a good attitude, they’ve got a great new manager and I think next season we could be promoted. We’ll see.”
Sheeran is no fan of the proposed European Super League: "It’s been covered by everyone. It’s not needed, is it? No one’s going ‘this is what we need’.
Asked what he gets for being the Blues’ sponsor, the 30-year-old added: "I do get a box but I have pushed the box back until after the tour. I’ve got a tour, I haven’t announced the tour yet, but the tour goes on for a while. I [was] going to have a box and not be able to see any games, so I’ve pushed the box to after the tour. "I get a player tracksuit with my initials on, I get one of them. I saw the contract and you get given a load of shirts. I think it’s usually companies that do it so they have shirts for all their company’s [personnel], signed footballs if you want signed footballs. "There’s all stuff like that. I don’t think I’m going to take them up on everything, but definitely the player tracksuit. "I’ve got three schoolmates that are mad Ipswich Town fans, I want to get them in the tracksuits. We’re talking about doing away days in them, going to like Fleetwood and rocking up.” Sheeran says he enjoys being at a match win or lose: "It’s a good day. Whenever I was off tour I would go to Ipswich games and they’ve had some tough years recently and they wouldn’t really always win. "But the day out would be really fun, win or lose. It would obviously put a dampener on it if they lost, but you still went to the game. "I’d go with my dad a lot, I had a Japanese rock band [One OK Rock] come and work in my studio and I brought them to a game [the 4-1 thrashing of Burton Albion in February 2020] and Ipswich were on form, so now the Japanese band are all mad Ipswich fans, bang into it.”What to read next:
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