Huawei Australia chairman John Lord today denied the Chinese technology giant was close to becoming the major sponsor of the ACT Brumbies before penning the two-year Raiders deal.

Huawei has an option to extend the deal until the end of 2015 in an announcement made on the lawns outside Parliament House this morning.

The Raiders played the first four rounds of the NRL season without a major sponsor, and modelled the new jersey with the Huawei logo they will wear against the North Queensland Cowboys at Canberra Stadium on Monday night.

Huawei was in discussions with several Australian sporting clubs, including the Brumbies and the Raiders, before finally settling on the Raiders at the start of this month.

Huawei pulled out of talks with the Brumbies just before Christmas, with the Super Rugby club securing the University of Canberra as its major sponsor before the start of the season.

‘‘We were not close to signing a deal (with the Brumbies),’’ Lord said.

‘‘As you can imagine a company of this size that has never done it before, it was a long process.

‘‘It’s taken us a long time to work through.

‘‘We’ve gone through a very intensive process, looked at the options and it’s very exciting to join this iconic rugby league team, the Canberra Raiders.’’

Huawei is the world’s second-largest producer of telecommunications products with ambitions to take top spot by the end of the year.

It has 140,000 employees world-wide with 800 of those in Australia.

Lord believes the Raiders are the perfect fit for the company’s first foray into sports sponsorship.

‘‘We wanted to get branding, get our name known among Australians and in households, and what better way than a sports team,’’ he said.

‘‘The process we went through over the last six to eight months, the Raiders have been very active in giving us a good proposal.

‘‘A little bit late into the season, but this is our first ever sponsorship worldwide so we wanted to make sure we got it right.’’

Huawei has been blocked by the Australian Federal Government from tendering for business involved with the National Broadband Network, allegedly following warnings from ASIO.

Asked if ASIO would have any reservations about the sponsorship deal, Lord replied, ‘‘I hope they’re strong supporters of the Canberra Raiders like us, it’s probably the one thing we agree on.’’

Raiders chief executive Don Furner said on-field performance would be crucial in dictating whether Huawei extended its naming-rights deal.

‘‘If we don’t perform in those two years they are free to go, but we are hoping that they extend it long-term,’’ Furner said.

‘‘I think we’ll be successful, we’ll do our best to support them and they’re brand and do our best to make them a household name.

‘‘We’re very happy to have a company of Huawei’s size on board and it’s a vote of confidence in Canberra as a city.’’