Super Furry Animals return to football shirt sponsorship with Cwmbran Celtic

Super Furry Animals are to sponsor Welsh football club Cwmbran Celtic this season, according to The Guardian. The deal is part of a growing trend of music acts crossing into football's commercial world, targeting "adjacent audiences" as much as tapping into 1990s nostalgia.

It is not the band's first foray into football sponsorship. In 1999, their logo appeared on Cardiff City's kit during the Bluebirds' Welsh Cup run. Frontman Gruff Rhys and bassist Guto Pryce, both Cardiff fans, persuaded their bandmates to set aside north Wales allegiances for the competition. The shirts, made for ice hockey, cost £2,000.

Cwmbran Celtic, recently relegated from Wales' second tier, are a more modest operation. The club is based in the town where the band send their stage props, including giant inflatable bears, for repair.

The Guardian's Emma John writes that the news evokes a simpler, more hopeful era, while noting the commercial logic behind such tie-ups: music and football now share overlapping fan bases that brands are keen to monetise.