Newcastle United’s Premier League rivals have agreed a new record shirt sponsorship deal.
Visit Rwanda have been unveiled as Aston Villa’s new sponsor in a deal described as the most lucrative and ‘important sponsorship deal in the history of the football club’.
According to The Athletic, the deal is worth up to £20million per-season if bonuses are met. Villa, like Newcastle, released their new home shirt without a front-of-shirt sponsor after their deal with Betano came to an end amid new Premier League rules prohibiting betting companies as sponsors.
KNOX Hydrate are Newcastle United's new front of shirt sponsor.placeholder image
KNOX Hydrate are Newcastle United's new front of shirt sponsor. | NUFC
A difficult market for sponsors as Newcastle United agree £60m deal
As first revealed by The Gazette last month, Newcastle signed a three-year sponsorship deal with hydration company KNOX Hydrate. The deal is worth up to £60million over three seasons plus an additional £18million from KNOX as the club’s training ground sponsor.
Newcastle sources expressed satisfaction with the deal in what is said to be a ‘difficult market’ on the back of the betting sponsorship rules. For example, Everton agreed a new £30million sponsorship deal with CMC Markets.
While Newcastle’s deal isn’t initially as lucrative as its previous £70.5million (£23.5million per-season) sponsorship agreement with Sela, the total package is worth more. It is also comparable to Villa’s £20million per-season deal with Visit Rwanda despite having no European football on offer, while their rivals are fresh from a Europa League win and set to compete in the Champions League.
A controversial shirt sponsorship deal for Aston Villa
Villa’s new shirt sponsorship deal - while the most lucrative in the club’s history - is not without controversy.
Visit Rwanda already partners with Paris Saint-Germain and Atletico Madrid, but its shirt sleeve deal with Arsenal, worth £10million per-season, has just concluded.
Visit Rwanda sponsorships in Europe have brought with them accusations of sportswashing after the Rwandan government were found to be linked to the M23, as per United Nations reports. The M23 is an ‘armed group’ operating in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, with a United Nations Report in 2025 stating that it had received ‘first-hand accounts indicating that at least 319 civilians were killed by M23 fighters, aided by members of the Rwanda Defence Force’.
The new deal could also cause some immediate friction with Villa’s incoming £51million summer signing Johan Manzambi. Villa beat Newcastle to the 20-year-old midfielder’s signature this past week.
While Manzambi represents the Switzerland national team, his father is from DR Congo. He is due for his medical in Birmingham and to finalise the move this week.
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