Newcastle United owners PIF outline £2bn football investment – including £480m sponsorship deal

The Newcastle majority owners have invested £210million on new signings since purchasing the club from Mike Ashley for £305million just over one year ago.

And now PIF have confirmed that a further £2.08billion [$2.3billion] has been invested in football sponsorship agreements in 2022.

As per The Financial Times, accounts released to PIF investors last week confirmed a significant increase in football related spending.

But the majority of the £2.08billion has been spent on domestic football in Saudi Arabia.

PIF owned Qiddiya has entered into 20-year strategic partnership deals with two the country’s biggest football clubs – Al-Nassr and Al-Hilal – with deals worth a staggering £480million each (£24million per-season).

Central Jeddah Development Company, a PIF portfolio company, has also entered into 20-year deals worth £480million with Al-Ahly and Al-Ittihad, the side Newcastle faced during their visit to the country back in January.

On top of that £960million worth of investment, a further £115million has been invested into PIF owned property developer Roshn sponsoring the Saudi Pro League for the next five seasons.

All sponsorship deals will be subject to a strategic review once every five years.

Newcastle have also benefited from new sponsorship deals in 2022 with PIF portfolio company Noon becoming the club’s sleeve sponsor for the 2022-23 season. The deal is understood to be worth £7.5million.

Noon also has a commercial partnership with Manchester City pre-dating the Newcastle takeover.

PIF governor and Newcastle chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan said in an interview last week: “Football, of course, is one of the most important sports there is.

"Whether domestically [in Saudi Arabia] or abroad. It’s the number one sport in the world.

“[The Premier League] is the best league in the world. No other league competes with it.”

“There are 20 teams, three are relegated and three are promoted. The advantage of the Premier League is that any of the 20 teams can beat the best team in the league.”

Newcastle are looking for a new main sponsor for next season after negotiating an early exit from their £6.5million a year deal with FUN88.

While no shirt sponsorship agreement for next season is in place as it stands, PIF’s portfolio and commitment to investing in football sponsorship will almost certainly open up new lucrative commercial avenues for The Magpies.

But there are several obstacles that will limit the impact of sponsorship deals for Newcastle in the Premier League.

Following the club’s takeover last October, the Premier League temporarily banned clubs from agreeing owner-related sponsorship deals with 18 other Premier League clubs backing the ban, Newcastle objecting and Manchester City abstaining.

The ban has since been lifted but regulations state that new sponsorship deals must represent ‘fair market value’ and any monetary payments to players and staff via owner-related entities must be properly disclosed.

Even with the regulations in place, sponsorship deals with PIF portfolio companies could significantly benefit Newcastle financially and provide a big boost to their spending power in the transfer market as profits generated through commercial means are not subject to financial fair play regulations.