MTN is out; FNB is in. After eight years as the Springboks' front-of-shirt sponsor, MTN ended its main sponsorship of South Africa's national rugby teams in March 2025 1 — a deal that had run since 2017 at a reported R40–50m a year.
Its replacement is a step up. FirstRand's FNB became the new main sponsor of all the national teams — men's, women's, sevens and youth — in a deal worth about R160m 2 (roughly $8.8m), with FNB confirmed as replacing MTN on the jersey 3.
The read: world champions re-rate their commercial assets. FNB's number dwarfs MTN's — and it lands while SA Rugby is still fighting over a private-equity stake in the Springbok's wider commercial rights. The jersey is only the most visible piece of a much bigger ownership question. See the full story in Who Owns the Springbok?, and the departing sponsor in Who Owns MTN?.
