AmaZulu challenge PSL’s big three with growing sponsorship portfolio

AmaZulu are establishing themselves as the most-sponsored South African football club outside the Premier Soccer League’s traditional big three after agreeing a three-year sponsorship deal with Amstel last week.

The Durban club’s new partnership with the beer brand follows the loss of Spar, which had been AmaZulu’s main sponsor for almost 40 years. Chief executive Sinenjabulo Zungu said the club had needed several seasons to rebuild its commercial appeal before Amstel approached them.

“It [attracting sponsors] is not easy. It’s taken us a while as well to get to a point where we’ve attracted the likes of Amstel,” Zungu told Sowetan yesterday.

“We lost Spar… and it took us [a few seasons] to get someone who says, ‘I am putting my hand up; I’ll support the club,’ because essentially they [Amstel] approached us.”

Sinenjabulo, the daughter of AmaZulu owner Sandile Zungu, said the club had deliberately invested in its identity away from the pitch as it sought to become more attractive to major companies.

“AmaZulu are not only about the playing side of things,” she said. “We put a lot of emphasis on brand equity and growing the brand. We re-launched our logo last season, and that was intentional because we are trying to corporatise and commercialise the brand.”

She said the club’s wider brand strategy had helped attract Amstel, arguing that AmaZulu offered more than football alone.

“The reason why brands like Amstel are coming on board is that they see that we are more than a football club; we are a brand,” Zungu added.

AmaZulu also recently won awards at the Loeries, an achievement Zungu said demonstrated the scale of the club’s ambitions in branding and advertising.

“We [recently] won awards at the Loeries. Anyone who follows advertising would actually acknowledge how big that is. No PSL club has ever entered the Loeries, and for us, that’s intentional… it’s to make the brand not only local but global.”

Zungu said the Amstel agreement represented an important development but was not expected to be the club’s final commercial addition.

“Having Amstel on board is a big step, but I think it’s only the beginning. People must watch out; there’ll be a lot coming.”

She did not reveal the value of the three-year sponsorship, saying only that it was “worth a substantial amount of money”.

AmaZulu’s current sponsors and partners include Amandla Mobile, their headline sponsor since July 2024, when it replaced Spar.

Primo Sportswear is the club’s technical and kit sponsor, having replaced Umbro at the start of last season. Amstel will appear as a sleeve sponsor for three years following last week’s agreement.

Mitsubishi Motors has been AmaZulu’s vehicle partner since August 2021, while Thule has held an outdoor and luggage partnership with the club since September 2021.