Doncaster Rovers have defended their kit competition after pop star Louis Tomlinson won the online poll.
The club asked their fans to send in their designs for the 2016/17 kits, with the top five being put in an online poll.
When it was revealed that the One Direction songstress walked away with the away shirt category by receiving 33.7% of the vote, people became suspicious that the competition may have been fixed so that the A-Lister could win.
Supporter Shaun Smith designed our home shirt… Here's who designed our away shirt https://t.co/hR2uwKm44c #DRFC pic.twitter.com/DhXBzaguVJ
— Doncaster Rovers FC (@drfc_official) April 4, 2016
Soooooo me and my Grandad Len won the competition of designing the new Donny away shirt. Pretty sick 😎
— Louis Tomlinson (@Louis_Tomlinson) April 4, 2016
A spokesperson for Doncaster Rovers responded to the criticism through a statement on their official website.
“The process for receiving kit designs, shortlisting and the public voting for our kit design competition followed strict legal guidance to ensure that the club adhered to competition law and that all processes were fair.”
“We are aware that the result of the competition has attracted some mixed feedback, but we can assure our fans that the voting process for the 2016/17 shirt designs was all fair and above board.”
However, some fans are not buying it.
Doncaster maintaining Louis Tomlinson winning kit design comp is legit. In other news, I'm the Queen of Sheba
— Robert Bartlett* (@RBartlettSport) April 5, 2016
https://twitter.com/ConrWA/status/717336954891866112
A bit ashamed of the #drfc with this whole kit design plan. Why should LT win when there was probably designs that were better…
— The Rovers Review (@rovers_review) April 4, 2016
https://twitter.com/benleeds/status/717335455449088000
I hate it when some "cool" 🌵 guys are tweeting "cool" 🌵 stuffs bout Louis Tomlinson winning "fixed" Competition. Stfu bruh!
— Bwf28 (@bowetry1) April 5, 2016
https://twitter.com/Oakes1983/status/717339276132937732
https://twitter.com/EddieG_74/status/717339259192082434
@Louis_Tomlinson Hahahaha not rigged at all
— Louis Baker (@bakerlouis27) April 5, 2016
