By Adam Williams, Finance & Governance Correspondent

16th May, 2023 | 5:01pm

Newcastle United may already be eyeing next big sponsorship deal as £25m windfall guaranteed

Newcastle United may already be plotting an even more lucrative sponsorship deal despite having just sold their front-of-shirt rights for £25million per season, Football Insider has been told.

The Tynesiders have agreed a deal of unspecified length with an unnamed Middle East-based company expected to be announced ahead of the summer.

The agreement is worth around four times the value of the previous deal with Fun88, which both parties have agreed to terminate prematurely at the end of 2022-23.

Sources told this site that the partnership has been ratified by the Premier League’s Fair Market Value panel, the body established to curb artificially-inflated commercial deals designed to help clubs circumvent financial fair play.

Ben Peppi, commercial expert and head of sports services at JMW Solicitors, insists that the £25m-a-year deal represents fair value – and that Newcastle could even command a bigger sum in the not-too-distant future.

“I think you need to analyse it in two ways,” he told Football Insider.

“Newcastle has been a sleeping giant up to now. Comparing a club like Newcastle and a club like, say, Brentford getting into Europe is very different.

“European football is attractive to new sponsors regardless of the type of club you are. But the size of the club, the fanbase, and relevance of the brand are important as well. Newcastle very much fit into the upper category of that.

“Newcastle’s front-of-shirt increase is significant, but traditional ‘Big Six’ clubs are selling their sponsorship for £40m-plus. Then, you have Everton, Leicester, West Ham, whose deals are around £10m-plus.

“Newcastle, with European football and new owners, would be between that category and the Big Six. So, I don’t think £25m is unreasonable, but it is a bet on the future of Newcastle, their upward growth and trajectory.“

Peppi speculates that Newcastle, who are well on course to play in next season’s Champions League, may have negotiated a shorter-term deal with a view to being in a stronger negotiating position in a few years’ time.

“If you are a sponsor, you’re looking at it as a massive opportunity. I see sponsors getting on board because this is a good time to get involved, and at a good value too.

“If anything, it will be Newcastle that might want a shorter-term deal because they might see themselves in a different place in three years and therefore want to go back to the market for a bigger deal in the same way they bought themselves out of the Fun88 deal.

“They want to be where Man City are now in 10 years, and there’s no reason to say they won’t be.“

Newcastle’s peers in terms of fanbase size and prestige – the likes of Everton and Aston Villa – could actually benefit from the precedent that the new front-of-shirt deal sets in terms of the Fair Market Value assessment, claims Peppi.

“If Newcastle’s shirt rights go for more than the likes of Villa and Everton, that moves the dial for them because the market shifts and their sponsorship value increases. Those clubs might actually see it as a positive.

“If it becomes ridiculous and outside of fair value, they will scrutinise it. But these sleeping giants, they will think they can all be Newcastle United.

“Besides an unlimited transfer budget – which in any case they can’t use because it’s not within FFP rules – there is nothing that Newcastle have that they don’t.

“I think where we will actually see more scrutiny is from the lower clubs. If the disparity is so great, they’ll think they can never catch up.”

Asked about whether the likes of Newcastle and Man City are under increased scrutiny in their commercial dealings, Peppi emphasised the subjective nature of the Fair Market Value assessment.

“Everything that has happened with Man City has heightened the scrutiny and the investigations that need to be done by the Fair Market Value assessors. But it’s so subjective. There are so many things that go into valuing a brand.

“Newcastle have the benefit of being seen as a big club. It’s not like they haven’t been here before, albeit a long time ago. That will help them, as will the fact that it is a non-party-related deal.

“There are all these tournaments, events and sponsorships coming from the Middle East now. If they want to throw money behind football, why should Newcastle be any different?”

In other news, Newcastle United plotting to sign Man City sensation who’s dazzled on loan.