Newcastle United 2023-24 kit leak: Fresh photos raise questions with new sponsor ‘named’

A fairly convincing design has been doing the rounds on social media showing a traditional black and white striped Newcastle shirt with a white Castore logo and Saudia, Saudi Arabia’s flag carrier airline, as the main sponsor. While the design looks authentic with close ups and various angles provided of the shirt, there is plenty of scepticism surrounding it.

And rightly so as The Gazette understands the ‘leaked’ kit design is not Newcastle’s shirt for the 2023-24 season. The yet to be released home shirt will not have white sleeves and a main sponsor is yet to be confirmed.

The club are currently in discussions with three companies regarding a club record sponsorship deal worth around £25million. Newcastle negotiated an early exit from their sponsorship deal with FUN88 but are unable to do the same with manufacturer Castore due to the intrinsic links set-up with the club shop as part of the deal.

Saudia have been tipped as a possible club sponsor for Newcastle given the clear connections with the club’s owners the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund. The club even partnered up with Saudia for their trip to Saudi Arabia back in December. The recently established Riyadh Air has also been mentioned as the club close in on securing a major sponsorship deal.

Earlier this month, The Gazette reported that Newcastle’s 2023-24 home kit will include white socks instead of the usual black and the shirt will feature a v-neck design similar to that seen in the leaked images.

The Magpies’ away kit is set to continue with the royal blue colour scheme while the third kit, also branded the ‘Saudi kit’ is set to be reversed to green with a white trim rather than this season’s white with a green trim. Newcastle’s colour scheme choices this season caused an issue during the opening away match of the season at Brighton & Hove Albion as the side had to wear their training shirt instead of any of the designated kits.