Manchester City have signed a new kit deal with Puma that has broken Premier League records.
Manchester City’s record-breaking kit deal with Puma is a “show of faith” in the club from the sportswear giant and a sign that their partnership is proving beneficial to the club and the German brand.
The £100million-a-season extension to City’s deal with Puma was confirmed on Tuesday. The partnership is now inked in for at least another 10 years and set to yield at least £1billion. That eclipses Manchester United’s £90million-a-season 10-year deal with Adidas, which also includes penalty clauses for failure to qualify for the Champions League.
Puma has been City’s kit manufacturing partner since 2019, signing a 10-year deal at £65million a season. The previous six years have seen unprecedented success at the Etihad, leading to this extension.
Football finance expert Kieran Maguire labelled the deal an excellent one for City and said the synergy between the club and the brand and their respective values had made for a successful partnership.
“It’s a fantastic deal for City. It’s potentially a very good deal for Puma as well, because they’ve always set themselves out to be a bit anti-establishment and a bit chippy,” Maguire told the Manchester Evening News.
“I think that’s where Manchester City are as a football club, in that they’re constantly having to fight the establishment. So I think it works well in terms of the profile of both organisations. It’s a show of faith from Puma.
“City seem to have a really good working relationship with Puma, so why not lock that down for a long period of time? City are very much Puma’s representatives in the Premier League. Adidas and Nike have quite a few clubs tied up.”
City and Puma have collaborated on limited-edition kits and pushed the boundaries of innovation, but they have also shared success.
The club’s supporter base is also growing rapidly worldwide, and they are becoming one of the more popular teams in the United States at a time when that market is more open to football than it has ever been.
“I think a lot of the criticism that’s levelled at Manchester City is on a sort of historical legacy basis in terms of success,” said Maguire.
“I was in Thailand last year and I saw loads of City and Haaland shirts in particular. I think for younger fans who are making those decisions, first of all, they tend to be closer links to players as much as enthusiasm for clubs.
“People want to be associated with success and historically we’ve seen the fantastic success of clubs such as Liverpool and Manchester United and that’s resulted in large numbers of international fans following them.
“In the last decade, Manchester City have been by far the most successful club in domestic football and therefore people who are making those decisions will say ‘Why don’t you follow Manchester City?’ In the United States, which is effectively an up-for-grabs market, City are doing very well.”
Puma’s lengthy extension also comes not long after Erling Haaland signed a nine-and-a-half year contract at the Etihad. City shirts with Haaland 9 on the back have become ubiquitous, with many of the younger generation focusing on the stars of the game rather than clubs.
“It helps having a superstar,” said Maguire. “You’ve only got to look at the desperation that FIFA had to crowbar Inter Miami into the Club World Cup, and without Lionel Messi, who would buy an Inter Miami shirt? So it’s a fashion accessory, having global superstars helps, and Haaland is a global superstar.”
The extension comes as City continue to wait for a verdict from the independent commission in the case brought against them by the Premier League for allegedly breaching financial fair play rules. Maguire expects clauses to be built into the deal around that.
“Without doubt. If it’s a very harsh penalty which relegates the club, that means that it’s going to take two or three seasons minimum to get back into the Champions League,” he said.
“So there will be clauses embedded into the contract because, from Puma’s point of view, Manchester City shirt sales are linked to exposure, and exposure is in the elite competitions.”