PUMA have announced that they've pulled off a monumental ten-year partnership with Premier League Champions Manchester City worth over £650m. The long-term deal will see the Big Cat arrive on the City shirts from next season and remain there for the next decade – a timeframe tipped to be the most successful period of the club's history.
The deal isn't just a direct link up with the blue half of Manchester; the partnership is with City Football Group Clubs, meaning that it stretches over an additional four club from Australia, Spain, Uruguay and China – Melbourne City FC, Girona FC, Club Atlético Torque and Sichuan Jiuniu FC. Men's, Women's and Youth teams. CFG actually cover 7 clubs, but Yokohama F. Marinos and New York City FC have contracts with adidas in connection with their respective leagues.
The new deal lands as the second-most lucrative in the Premier League at £65m per season, as the club aim to bring up their global brand appeal in line with their on-pitch dominance. That's reportedly more than treble the money they were earning from their current supplier Nike.
City will wear their new kits for the first time in the summer when they travel on their pre-season tour of Asia, which includes matches in Japan and China. PUMA will get to work quickly with plans already in the works to launch a special 125th anniversary kit next season which will be designed in conjunction with City fans.
“PUMA’s partnership with City Football Group is the largest deal that we have ever done - both in scope and ambition,” said Bjørn Gulden, CEO of PUMA. “We are very excited to partner with City Football Group, whose success, ambition and drive for innovation has seen them setting new standards, on and off the field. We look forward to building the most innovative partnership in football by redefining the sports partnership model both on and off the pitch. We want to maximise on-field performance as well as football culture, in areas such as music, gaming and fashion to connect and inspire the fanbase of each team.”
“This announcement marks the start of an exciting new chapter for City Football Group,” said Ferran Soriano, CEO of City Football Group. “Our relationship with PUMA, covering five City Football Group clubs across four continents, will reset the model for sports partnerships on a truly global scale whilst being locally relevant and authentic for fans around the world. PUMA share our vision for challenging expectations, and we are looking forward to what we believe will be a ground-breaking partnership.”
PUMA and Manchester City are already linked via several player partnerships, including Caroline Weir, Pauline Bremer and Nikita Parris in the Women’s Team in addition to men’s club captain Vincent Kompany, midfielder David Silva and prolific frontman Sergio Agüero. The brand worked under the cover of darkness last night to scatter billboards across the city to help announce the new deal.
Stay tuned for a first look at the debut PUMA x MCFC shirts in the summer...
