MILAN: Roma announced on Wednesday that Riyadh Season will be their new shirt sponsor, the latest move from Saudi Arabia in European football.
In a statement, Roma did not say for how long the sponsorship would last nor how much it was worth, but that the Italian club would play a friendly in Saudi Arabia as part of the new deal.
Italian media report that the deal is worth around €8 million ($8.3 million) a season.
Roma did not say when they would play the friendly match, with the opposition also not specified.
Riyadh Season is an entertainment and sport festival held during winter in the Saudi capital organized by the Gulf country’s Entertainment Authority.
Roma had been looking for a main shirt sponsor after breaking with crypto currency company DigitalBits, who did not respect the terms of their three-year, 35-million-euro sponsorship and were also dumped by Inter Milan.
Jose Mourinho’s side had been playing matches with the ancient Roman slogan SPQR (“Senatus Populusque Romanus” or “The Senate and People of Rome“) on the front of their shirts since abandoning the DigitalBits deal late last season.
The new deal is the latest move in football from the Saudis, who own Premier League club Newcastle United and have unleashed hundreds of millions of dollars to bring stars to their own domestic Pro League.
The prospect of Roma taking on Riyadh as a sponsor had caused some controversy in Italy as the two capital cities are both bidding to host the 2030 Expo.
