POP icon Ed Sheeran is the brains behind Ipswich Town’s sensational front-of-shirt sponsorship deal – but some fans still don’t understand what it means.
Sheeran was born in Yorkshire but grew up in Suffolk and has been an Ipswich fanatic since a young age.
The music megastar initially agreed on a one-year deal with his boyhood club for the 2021/22 season.
However, the sponsorship seems to have been a good luck charm as it has stuck around to see Ipswich propel themselves to top-flight football.
And fans now want to know exactly what the sponsor means.
The message ‘+-=÷x TOUR’ will appear on the men’s and women’s teams’ jerseys, in reference to Ed Sheeran‘s previous albums.
When pressed on what the logo means, the Shape of You sensation replied cryptically: “All will be revealed in time.”
However, reports suggest that Ed Sheeran uses mathematic symbols to name his albums as he feels each symbol represents patches in his life.
Sheeran, 33, was a regular to Portman Road last season as Ipswich fought for top-flight football.
And after Kieran McKenna‘s team secured back-to-back promotions, the pop star lead the celebrations by belting out the iconic Tractor Boys chant.
Sheeran used a Suffolk phrase ‘sloightly on the huh’ – meaning ‘slightly off kilter’ – in his message to fans upon the revealing of his shirt-sponsorship deal as he predicted better times ahead for his hometown team.
The world-famous singer-songwriter added: “The football club is a big part of the local community and this is my way of showing my support.”
Flame-haired Sheeran also also posted a picture of himself as a youngster in an Ipswich shirt on his Instagram account, which has a whopping 31.9million followers.
The ‘A Team’ star accompanied it with a post which read: “This bloke is the new sponsor of @ipswichtown football club. Do well”.
Ed Sheeran is expected to appear at several games this season as Ipsiwch fight to stay in the Premier League after a 22-year-exile.