Newcastle United sponsor makes 'weak' Sunderland joke on April Fool's Day

Newcastle sponsor FUN88 took to social media to aim an April Fool's joke at Sunderland fans last Monday.

FUN88, a gambling company, had previously held primary front-of-shirt rights since the start of the 2017-18 season but is now the club’s official Asian betting partner after losing the rights at the beginning of this campaign.

However, despite relinquishing their front-of-shirt sponsorship position on Newcastle Unites strips, FUN88 still took to Twitter to tweet their attempt at an April Fool's joke aimed at the Magpies' North East rivals Sunderland.

Their account tweeted: "OFFICIAL: Delighted to announce FUN88 will be sponsoring Sunderland AFC. Our social media team can’t wait to get started interacting with the club’s supporters."

The joke was pretty poorly received with the initial post receiving under 1,000 likes and was only retweeted around 30 times by social media users.

One user commented: "April Fool's jokes are supposed to be at least slightly funny btw," and another added: "Pretty weak efforts this year..."

Sunderland are next in action against Bristol City at the Stadium of Light in the Championship this coming Saturday with interim head coach Mike Dodds and his players now under pressure to turn in a competent performance after the shambles on Easter Monday against Blackburn Rovers at the Stadium of Light

Sunderland lost the game 5-1, meaning the Wearsiders have slipped to 13th in the league and have now lost 19 games this season. Newcastle United staged an incredible comeback to win their last game 4-3 against West Ham in the Premier League over the weekend.