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English top-flight soccer club Newcastle United have agreed a new front-of-shirt sponsorship deal with a Middle Eastern company worth an estimated UK£25 million (US$31.2 million) a year, according to The Times.
The agreement for the Premier League outfit, which is owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), is reportedly not with a company from the kingdom.
The pact will kick in from the 2023/24 season and comes after Newcastle negotiated an early release from their deal with Chinese sports betting brand Fun88. That partnership predated the club’s Saudi-backed takeover and is worth in the region of UK£6.5 million (US$8.1 million) a year.
The Times reports that Newcastle believe the new tie-up with the unnamed Middle Eastern company will fall inside the Premier League’s ‘fair market value’, a new regulation introduced in December 2021 that requires clubs to seek approval on lucrative deals.
According to the Guardian, if a club has a proposal worth more than UK£1 million (US$1.2 million) from an entity with a perceived link to their owners they must go before the top flight’s board to prove that it is of fair market value
