Last week, American burger chain Burger King had reportedly approached Russian Premier League club Zenit St Petersburg with an offer of 500m roubles (over £5.7m) to change the club’s name to include their brand. The offer? For the club to be renamed – Zenit Burger King!
As preposterous as it sounds (wouldn’t Zenit St PetersBurger King have sounded better?), Burger King’s offer claimed that since Zenit were the only major club in Saint Petersburg, they wanted to celebrate its sixth year in the city by changing the name of the biggest club in the city – subject to the Russian Football Union’s approval.
While we have seen eccentric billionaires try and change shake things up at a club (like changing the traditional home kit colours), this is taking it to a whole new level. Clubs may have stadiums named after a main sponsor when selling naming rights but would never sell their club’s name to one for all the money in the world.
Of course, Zenit were quick to respond after social media went abuzz with the latest development and tweeted a very apt GIF from the popular TV series Game of Thrones. Every fan fondly remembers Tyrion Lannister slapping his nephew Joffrey Baratheon as if he was still a little kid and that’s exactly the kind of reaction one would expect for such requests from brands who know next to nothing about what football is all about.
This isn’t the first time Zenit’s social media team have made waves on Twitter. Earlier this year they had a go at a major British media house for insulting the club logo.
