Valve and shower company Intatec has hit out at a premier league football club that it said has placed "a restriction" on publicising the installation of new anti-scald and water-saving showers.

The club, which Intatec has not named, would only agree to publicity in return for a discount that almost equalled the cost of the equipment.

Intatec's commercial director Cynthia Fisher said: "We were disappointed when the club decided to demand such a huge discount in return for their permission to mention the project.

"Unfortunately this isn't the first time we've come across this type of harsh licensing demands in respect of sporting venues. In 2007, when a long-awaited stadium eventually opened, we were unable to say that our products had been used because the 'publicity licence' cost was 50% more than the value of the products we'd installed. We'd have been hugely out of pocket and it just didn't make sense.

"I've decided to speak out now because I've chatted with other firms who have supplied equipment into many of our iconic sporting venues, but have all been hit with demands for substantial licence fees. I'm not the only one frustrated!

"No manufacturer I know has yet been prepared to commit to such a deal, which makes me question whether the commercial teams at the sporting institutions we love so much have lost touch with the jobbing plumbers and other building tradesmen who fill their terraces every weekend."