Manchester United’s post-Tezos era raises questions about crypto sponsorships in football

Manchester United is on the hunt for a new training kit sponsor after its deal with Tezos, the blockchain platform that adorned the club’s practice jerseys since 2022, expired in June 2025. The partnership was worth over £20 million annually, making it one of the most lucrative crypto-sports deals in Premier League history.

Reports indicate the club is in advanced talks for replacement deals expected to exceed £18 million annually.

The Tezos experiment and what it actually delivered

When Manchester United announced Tezos as its official training kit and blockchain partner in 2022, the deal was heralded as a landmark moment. A top-tier football club aligning with a Layer 1 blockchain protocol felt like validation for an industry still fighting for mainstream credibility.

The club also launched an MUFC fan token on Socios.com via Chiliz, enabling holders to participate in fan voting and engagement features.

Why crypto-sports deals keep fizzling

FTX had its name on the Miami Heat’s arena before, well, you know how that ended. Crypto.com paid $700 million for naming rights to the former Staples Center.

The silence from Manchester United on any new crypto or digital asset partnerships since mid-2025 is telling. No new blockchain deals have surfaced. No expanded fan token initiatives have been announced.

What this means for crypto investors watching sports partnerships

For anyone in the crypto space eyeing sports sponsorships as a signal of adoption, the Manchester United case is instructive. These deals are marketing expenditures, not adoption milestones. When a blockchain protocol pays £20 million a year for logo placement, the question investors should ask is whether that spend is generating users, transactions, or developer activity, not just eyeballs.

There’s also the fan token angle to consider. Chiliz and Socios.com built an entire business model around sports fan tokens, but trading volumes and engagement metrics across the platform have declined from their 2021-2022 peaks.

Investors should track two things: who replaces Tezos on United’s training kit, and whether any new deal includes deeper blockchain integration beyond logo placement.

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