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In 1973, the head of the alcohol brand J盲germeister, Gunter Mast, decided he wanted to sponsor his local football team Eintracht Braunschweig.

However, under the rules of the West German Football Federation, the DFB, advertising on shirts was banned.

He launched a legal challenge against the rules and initially got around them by changing the club鈥檚 crest to the logo of the drink.

Shirt sponsorship is now a multi-million-pound industry around the world.

Bernd Gersdorff played for Eintracht Braunschweig between 1969 and 1976. He has been speaking to Tim O鈥機allaghan about his memories of this period.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive and testimony. Sporting Witness is for those fascinated by sporting history. We take you to the events that have shaped the sports world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes, you become a fan in the stands as we take you back in time to examine memorable victories and agonising defeats from all over the world. You鈥檒l hear from people who have achieved sporting immortality, or those who were there as incredible sporting moments unfolded.

Recent episodes explore the forgotten football Women鈥檚 World Cup, the plasterer who fought a boxing legend, international football鈥檚 biggest ever beating and the man who swam the Amazon river. We look at the lives of some of the most famous F1 drivers, tennis players and athletes as well as people who鈥檝e had ground-breaking impact in their chosen sporting field, including: the most decorated Paralympian, the woman who was the number 1 squash player in the world for nine years, and the first figure skater to wear a hijab. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the tennis player who escaped the Nazis, how a man finally beat a horse in a race, and how the FIFA computer game was created.

(Photo: Mast with two players from Eintracht Braunschweig with the new sponsored shirts. Credit: Rust\Ullstein Bild via Getty Images)