Newcastle United Unveil New Shirt Sponsor

Newcastle United have revealed they have found new shirt sponsors just in time to face Manchester United last night.

The club’s current kit sponsor Northern Rock will be replaced with the Virgin Money logo in a two and a half year deal after a late agreement between the team and the company.

This has ended Northern Rock’s eight-year relationship with the St James’ Park outfit.

It comes after Gosforth-based Northern Rock was sold to Richard Branson’s Virgin empire in a £747m ($1.16bn) deal in November – which included 75 branches and 2,100 staff, one million customers, a £14bn($21.9bn) mortgage book and retail deposits worth £16bn ($25bn)

Newcastle United’s latest sponsorship deal is believed to have been secured after Virgin Money’s chief executive visited the region yesterday.

Jayne-Anne Gadhia, Virgin Money’s chief said:

“Now that Virgin Money and Northern Rock are ‘united’ as one business, it gives us great pleasure to continue the shirt sponsorship of Newcastle United Football Club.

“The Northern Rock sponsorship started in 2003 and it is an important link to the North-East which we are pleased to continue.

“Combined with our sponsorship of the Virgin London Marathon and the Edinburgh Festival ‘Fringe on the high street’, the shirt sponsorship of Newcastle United Football Club embeds our involvement in the communities we serve.”

The bank also pledged to give new shirts free of charge to the first 10,000 fans to bring their old ones to the club shop.

Newcastle MD Derek Llambias said: “We’re delighted to secure this new deal with Virgin Money.

“It is an excellent deal for both parties and we’re very happy to have them on board.”

The Rock secured a £10m deal in January last year to sponsor Newcastle United for four years, but the firm enacted a break clause in November to cancel that deal at the end of the current season.