The Manchester club recently announced the new partnership with the Australian firm. It has, however, not gone down well with the fans.
Earlier today, Manchester United announced Australian company Laybuy as their new official ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ partner.
The deal will allow future customers to buy club merchandise from Manchester United Megastore and spread their payment over six weeks of interest-free instalments.
Talking about the deal, Laybuy co-founder and managing director Gary Rohloff said: “At Laybuy, we share our customers’ obsession with football, and we want to help as many fans as we can enjoy and celebrate the game. That is why we are incredibly excited to be partnering with Manchester United, who have some of the most passionate fans in the world.”
“We want to make life as easy as possible for Manchester United’s fans. Laybuy is simple to use and helps fans fit new merchandise into their weekly budgets by allowing them to buy goods now and spread the payments over the following six weeks,” he added.
“Best of all, Laybuy customers don’t pay interest, ever!”
Manchester United’s director of partnerships, Sean Jefferson, said: “We know fans are looking for a range of different payment options that best meet their specific needs. That is why we are delighted to be partnering with Laybuy, a global leader in Buy Now Pay Later technology, to provide fans access to a more convenient way of purchasing club merchandise and services.”
REACTION
Unsurprisingly, the new deal has not gone down well within the Manchester United fanbase. Manchester United’s CEO, the infamous Edward Gareth Woodward, has often been derided for his lack of understanding of football in order to make proper, efficient footballing decisions and an affinity towards marketing deals. The club’s intention with this partnership might as well be well-intended, but announcing it right after a disappointing transfer window which saw them fail miserably at securing some much-needed reinforcements shows how inept the ‘dedicated’ PR team at the club is in reading the elephant in the room.
The irony of Manchester United announcing a “buy now, pay later” deal after the kind of transfer window they’ve had is quite simply, incredible. Surely, that is the kind of payment option they could have used in their famously vain attempt to secure the Jadon Sancho deal.
Written By
Anshuman Joshi
