Manchester United launched their new training kit range this past week without a sponsor
Rasmus Hojlund of Manchester United in action during a first team training session at Bukit Jalil National Stadium on May 27, 2025 in the Tezos-sponsored training kit
(Image: Ash Donelon/Manchester United via Getty Images)
Manchester United launched their new training kit range for 2025/26 without a sponsor, and it may be a little while yet before they get one.
Last month it was revealed by the Manchester Evening News that the deal with blockchain firm Tezos, worth some £24m per year, would come to an end ahead of the new campaign, and no replacement for it had yet been lined up. The three-year deal, which brought in £24m a season, was worth a total of £72m.
Across the last three years, Tezos has been a visible partner for United, and a valuable one too, occupying one of the key pieces of the club’s sponsorship inventory. The club are working on a replacement, but there will be reasons why it takes a little longer than it may have otherwise done.
It is a similar situation to the one that Chelsea found themselves in last season when it came to a front-of-shirt sponsor. The West London side had been wanting to achieve a figure in line with what some of their rivals had been able to bring in but a lack of competitive success and Champions League exposure meant that the value of the deals available weren’t as strong as hoped for.
Instead of taking a lesser amount and tying themselves into it for a long period of time, the club opted to go without, instead partnering with Dubai real estate agents DAMAC for the final weeks of the season in a multi-million pound deal.
United’s approach will be similar. They will know that accepting a lower fee than they have previously been able to would weaken their leverage when going to future deals. They want to ensure that they are not only holding the current value, but three years on from the initial Tezos deal, and taking into account inflation, they will want more than what was on offer to ensure that commercial revenues are growing and not diminishing.
That is the challenge that is posed by a lack of Champions League football and the reputational damage that such a bad domestic campaign inflicted last season. United remains a globally recognised brand, but it isn’t associated with competitive success at the moment, nor does it look like that corner will be turned immediately, and getting major brands to part with significant sums of cash for training wear apparel exposure is a greater challenge than it previously has been.
The club, without access to money from European football this coming season, needs to strike a good deal when it comes to renewing or bringing on board new commercial partners so as not to further impact what may be a challenging financial year during a period when they will be required to strengthen the squad in order to return themselves to Europe’s elite knockout club competition.
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