Revealed: The remarkable reason Barcelona could have claimed ‘breach of contract’ and ended their £90m-a-year Nike deal, risking a fine ‘worth millions’
- Nike has supplied kits for Barcelona since 1998, but the deal seemed risky
- President Joan Laporta initially wanted to say goodbye to the sportswear giant
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The remarkable reason why Barcelona could have claimed breach of contract and ended their lucrative Nike deal – and risked a hefty fine – has been revealed.
Nike has been supplying kits for the Catalan club since 1998, almost a decade before their famous maroon and blue shirts first got a main sponsor, but the partnership was jeopardized as Barca president Joan Laporta was keen to move on.
The deal, worth just under £90m per year, has been updated several times and currently runs until June 2028. However, an extension is now likely with Barcelona having exhausted all their options after searching for alternatives.
In recent weeks, Nike representatives arrived in Barcelona to meet with Laporta, but according to… Sportquickly left after disagreements over the proposal.
Puma had also made an offer to the club and Laporta would have been more inclined to accept this proposal. However, in doing so, Barcelona risked a significant fine for a possible breach of contract with Nike.
Barcelona tried to accuse Nike of breach of contract because of Robert Lewandowski’s name
Club chairman Joan Laporta was keen to part ways with the lucrative £90m-a-year partnership
Sport has claimed that Barcelona, in its attempts to reduce or avoid penalties, even looked for ways to show that Nike itself had breached the contract.
The club are said to have discovered distribution errors, including a case where new shirts were not in stores two seasons ago, to bolster their case.
In a curious move, they also accused Nike of not taking the names of Barcelona players into account – with Robert Lewandowski’s jerseys in the spotlight.
The letter W does not exist in some parts of the world and this caused a problem for both Nike and Barcelona as Lewandowski’s shirts were the club’s bestseller. Oddly enough, the solution was to use an M backwards on jerseys with the striker’s name.
Lewandowski’s name proved to be a problem with the letter W not being used in parts of the world
Barcelona will remain with Nike after a U-turn after the sportswear giant increased its offer
This would have been one of the arguments Barcelona were preparing to present to the court, although their turnaround has avoided a public deadlock.
A future alternative to Nike could see the Catalan giants take the surprising step of creating their own brand to manufacture their kits in-house.
Nike would have improved their offer, but Puma were willing to pay £17 million and £25 million more. It is believed that Barcelona will stick with the former after their proposal increased significantly and due to the need to produce kits for next season.
Sport has reported that the deal with Nike will last another ten seasons.
