Kieran Maguire

Thu 2 March 2023 15:39, UK

There is “a lot of logic” behind Newcastle United negotiating a sleeve sponsorship deal with the Botswana tourist board.

That is the opinion of finance expert Kieran Maguire, who spoke exclusively to Football Insider about Newcastle’s latest sponsorship talks.

Football Insider sources revealed on Wednesday (1 March) that the Botswana tourist board is again exploring the possibility of a sponsorship deal with Newcastle United.

The two parties held discussions over a sponsorship deal in the summer, but Newcastle eventually partnered with the PIF-linked e-commerce platform Noon.com.

However, the Magpies are open to other sponsorship options with their one-year Noon deal set to expire in the summer.

Arsenal and Tottenham have also explored sponsorship deals with African tourism boards, with Arsenal partnering with Visit Rwanda while Spurs saw their £42.5million deal with South Africa collapse.

Maguire insists that Newcastle are being “very smart” by distancing themselves from their Saudi owners amid criticism over intra-party deals.

“I think this Botswana deal is a very smart idea by Newcastle United,” Maguire told Football Insider‘s Sean Fisher.

“They want to be seen as more than just an extension of the relationship with Saudi Arabia and you can’t get more of an extension than getting a relationship with another sovereign state.

“They’re fully aware of the sponsorship deals with Visit Rwanda and the attempted deal between Spurs and South Africa that failed.

“It will be easier to get this deal through the fair value committee if it’s with a party that is deemed to be completely independent of their owners.

“Potentially it can set a benchmark that Newcastle can use to link to subsequent deals with other organisations.

“So I think they’ve thought this through cleverly and there’s a lot of logic to the approach that they’ve taken.“

In other news, Newcastle agree deal to hire Man City recruitment expert Paul McLaren