Why did Inter play without a shirt sponsor on Wednesday? A beautiful, yet remarkable sight. The empty football shirt that Internazionale played with on Wednesday night. For many companies, the semi-final of the Champions League is a perfect stage to gain fame, but Inter played against AC Milan without a shirt sponsor. This is why.
It is not the first time that Inter has played without a shirt sponsor this season. This was already the case in Serie A. The reason for this was the break with shirt sponsor DigitalBits. In September 2021, the Milan top club signed a contract worth 85 million euros with the new shirt sponsor. However, the millions were long in coming.
85 million euro that never paid off
According to Italian sources, Inter never even received payment for the first season. To put some pressure on DigitalBits, Inter previously decided to take the company off the jerseys of the youth and women’s teams. That had little effect, so that the company also disappeared from the men’s shirt at the end of April and the contract was broken. Inter has so far not found a new sponsor.
When both parties teamed up, the crypto company was doing very well. The value of the company had skyrocketed in the months before, but that quickly collapsed again due to the crypto crisis. The value of their cryptocurrency is now only 0.1 percent of what it was at the time. AS Roma is in the same boat. They play with the letters ‘SPQR’ on the shirt, referring to the emblem of ancient Rome.
Lautaro Martínez apologizes for the dive against AC Milan
Lautaro Martínez has apologized for the dive he made in the semi-final of the Champions League against AC Milan on Wednesday evening. The Argentinian striker from Internazionale caused a sensation by dropping into the opponent’s penalty area, but the penalty was reversed.
Initially, referee Jesús Gil Manzano kicked Martínez’s trick dive, but after intervention by the VAR, the pin was canceled. Afterwards, Martínez apologized, but also emphasized that he was hit. “I felt contact with the penalty kick that I didn’t get in the end. But it was minimal, so I’m sorry. I was in front of the goal and it was stupid to dive. The referee didn’t give it and then it’s over,” he revealed. Martínez did not receive a yellow card for his schwalbe.
