Manchester United to Display Premier League Badges on Both Sleeves

Manchester United will tweak their look this weekend – not for style, but to satisfy the rulebook.

When Ipswich visit Old Trafford on Sunday, United will run out with official Premier League badges on both sleeves, correcting an opening-day oversight that left them out of step with league regulations in the defeat at Hull City.

Under top-flight guidelines, every club must carry the Premier League badge and “No Room For Racism” motif on the right sleeve. If there is no commercial partner on the left arm, the law is clear: the league badge has to appear there as well.

United, currently without a sleeve sponsor after their £20million-a-year agreement with DXC Technology ended in May, should have worn the lion crest on both arms at Hull. They didn’t. The right sleeve was compliant; the left was bare.

The mistake has been acknowledged by both the club and league officials, but it will not trigger a sanction. Instead, United have been told to fix it – and they will, in time for their first home league game of the season against the newly-promoted Tractor Boys.

The change is not cosmetic. It is a direct application of Premier League Rule M.15, which requires clubs without a left-sleeve sponsor to display the competition’s official badge on that side as well as the right. Chelsea, Sunderland and Crystal Palace all followed that instruction on the opening weekend, each lining up with twin lions on their shirts.

United had hoped not to be in that group for long. The club had planned to unveil a new sleeve sponsor ahead of the campaign, but negotiations over a fresh commercial deal are still ongoing. For now, their sleeves remain unbranded for the first time in eight years, the gap a visible reminder of DXC Technology’s exit.

Off the pitch, the commercial machine has hardly stalled. Earlier this month, United signed a record multi-year training kit sponsorship with Betway, worth around £20million per season, strengthening a portfolio that already includes Snapdragon as front-of-shirt sponsor from the start of the 2024/25 campaign.

Until a new sleeve partner is finally signed off, though, the only emblem allowed to sit there is the Premier League’s own. And on Sunday, under the Old Trafford lights, that lion will be roaring from both arms.