BOLTON WANDERERS FC has reversed its decision to allow its club kit to be sponsored by QuickQuid, an online lending firm, after a campaign led by a Christian fan.

Bolton Wanderers announced last month that QuickQuid's logo would be emblazoned on its kit for the next season, as part of a two-year partnership deal.

Andy Walton, communications officer for the Contextual Theology Centre (CTC) and a life-long Bolton fan, set up a petition on the website change.org calling on the club to reverse the decision. The petition attracted more than 4000 signatures.

Mr Walton said that QuickQuid was a "payday-lending company", and that such companies "charge sky-high rates of interest and are looking to exploit people who have fallen on hard times. In this tough economic climate, that includes many Bolton fans."

Mr Walton said that, through his work with the CTC, he had seen "the terrible impact that payday loans have on communities already suffering economic deprivation".

On Wednesday of last week, Bolton FC issued a statement saying that it had "taken on board the feedback from our fan base", and "will no longer be entering into a sponsorship agreement with QuickQuid". It had "underestimated the adverse reaction to the sector of business in which the sponsor operated".

The CTC has recently launched the "Just Money" campaign, along with Citizens UK, the community-organisers. The campaign intends to make financial institutions work for the good of local communities.

Margaret Hodge, who chairs the House of Commons PublicAccounts Committee, said last month that the Office of Fair Trading had not done enough to regulate payday-loans firms.

www.theology-centre.org