Comment: Pointless Exercise

When I was about eight I was bought a replica shirt of my beloved football team, which is Watford (yes, Watford - you may have heard of them - relegated from the Premiership this year, don't you know…).

But my excitement was destroyed when I realised the shirt didn't have the name of the team sponsor on it. At the time the sponsor was Solvite, maker of wallpaper adhesives. Hardly the coolest sponsor, but I just wanted to look exactly like the Watford players - like my heroes. As any kid would.

So the decision by the Portman Group to push drinks companies into removing their brand name from children's replica shirts is a strange one because all it will do is draw more attention to the brand name. 'Impressionable' youngsters will want to know why the shirt has no sponsor and in most instances will find out what the sponsor does. I didn't know or care what Solvite was when I was eight in the same way an eight-year-old Everton fan today will have no idea what the word 'Chang' stands for on their shirts. But take something away from a kid and they want it 10 times more.

And at the same time these children will go to matches with their parents (who have the branding on their shirts) to watch the players (who wear the branding), buy the programme (which contains the branding) and go home to rooms adorned with posters of the players (which have the branding). Absolutely ridiculous.