Oxford apologised and immediately withdrew its Campus Collection after ‘United 93’ drew 9/11 comparisons.
Oxford United withdrew its Campus Collection and apologised after the range carried the wording “United 93” on the back, wording widely read as a reference to United Airlines Flight 93, hijacked in the 11 September 2001 attacks.
Oxford United takes ‘full responsibility’
The club said in a statement that the range “was released without understanding of the historical context and associations” and “should not have reached the point of sale”.
Oxford United said it took “full responsibility for not undertaking proper due diligence” and had removed the collection with immediate effect. The club apologised “for any offence caused” and said it was reviewing its approval processes to ensure nothing similar happened again.
The Campus Collection was a two-piece range of an American football jersey and a baseball jersey, released to coincide with the start of the NFL and MLB seasons.
The “93” referred to 1993, the year Oxford United won promotion to the Second Division, the club said. The range went on sale around 11 September, the 25th anniversary of the attacks. The wording circulated on social media in the days after the launch, with users linking it to Flight 93 before the club issued its statement.
United Airlines Flight 93 was one of four aircraft hijacked on 11 September 2001. Passengers and crew fought the four al-Qaeda hijackers, and the plane crashed in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing everyone on board – 40 passengers and crew, and the four hijackers.
The 9/11 Commission found the hijackers were probably targeting the US Capitol.
Novig campaign draws separate backlash
The removal followed a separate sports-marketing controversy this month.
Novig, a US sports-prediction market, released a national advertising campaign on 9 September featuring the actress Sydney Sweeney nude and covering herself with sports equipment, timed to the start of the NFL season.
Novig’s post sharing the advertisement drew more than 12 million views on X and more than 47 million on Instagram.
Professional and Olympic athletes criticised the campaign as sexualising women’s sport. Four-time Olympic swimming champion Ariarne Titmus wrote on Instagram that she could not describe how infuriated the advertisement made her, and questioned why monetising a woman’s body and sexualising women’s sport remained acceptable. British sprinter Amy Hunt told the BBC the campaign did not reflect what women in sport look like.
Novig Co-founder and CEO Jacob Fortinsky defended the campaign at a Front Office Sports event on 15 September. “We never intended to portray female sports,” Fortinsky said, adding that Sweeney, an equity holder in Novig, drove the campaign’s visuals and messaging.
Fortinsky said the goal was to introduce Novig to a national audience ahead of the football season. Novig, founded in 2021 by Fortinsky and Kelechi Ukah, launched nationally in August and was valued at $500m in February.
Novig’s Sweeney spot was one of three celebrity advertisements from prediction-market operators that week.
Sweeney said in a statement that the campaign was about putting the focus on sports. She drew separate criticism in 2025 for an American Eagle campaign that some read as referencing eugenics.
