Newcastle have landed a £25million-a-year shirt sponsorship deal with Middle-Eastern company

Add as preferred source on Google

Newcastle United will have a new front of shirt sponsor next season after agreeing an early termination with current sponsors FUN88.

Shortly after the takeover was completed, Amanda Staveley and the board set about reassessing all of the deals which generated revenue for Newcastle United. They quickly moved to agree with FUN88 to terminate their shirt sponsorship deal two years early.

The existing deal was said to be worth around £8million-a-year, whereas now, according to The Times, Newcastle’s new deal will be worth £25million-a-year to the club. It’s a well-known fact that the sleeve sponsorship deal with Saudi online-shopping giants, Noon, is worth more than the front-of-shirt sponsorship deal.

Newcastle’s new sponsor isn’t from Saudi Arabia

The Middle-Eastern company have yet to be named, and there’s so far no confirmation from the club, but this is definitely the type of deal you’d expect Newcastle to be doing now.

It’s understood that the company in question aren’t from Saudi Arabia which will raise some eyebrows as everyone expected it to be a Saudi-based company given their Saudi links. People were expecting it would most likely be SAUDIA airlines or Riyadh Airlines, but it appears that won’t be the case.

A £25million-a-year deal is a massive jump up from the existing deal and will help massively with Financial Fair Play going forward. The deal is said to represent ‘fair market value’ which is something that the Premier League came up with to stop clubs with wealthy owners using sponsorship as a way to pump money into clubs unfairly.

The new deal is still well behind the likes of Manchester City’s Etihad deal

The deal, while a significant jump for Newcastle, is still below the likes of Manchester City whose deal is said to be worth £67.5m-a-year, so the media shouldn’t be able to use it as another stick to beat us with – although I’m sure they’ll try.

As Newcastle continue to grow and become more successful they’ll be able to command even more impressive sponsorship deals, but for now, this step up is going to open so many doors for the club along with all of the other deals that have been worked on this season.