By Mark Baber
November 25 – Nissan have said they were “extremely shocked” to see Guangzhou Evergrande ditch their branding with one minute’s notice prior to the AFC Champions League final last Saturday. Nissan’s logo would have normally been on the front of the club’s shirts in what is the premier club competition in Asia, football’s most populous region.
Nissan Motor Co.’s Chinese joint venture in China, Dongfeng Nissan, is taking legal action against Guangzhou Evergrande of breaking their sponsorship agreement ahead of their Saturday win against Al-Ahli in the AFC Champions League final.
Dongfeng Nissan, who paid more than 100 million yuan ($16 million) for the season-long rights to Guangzhou Evergrande Taobao’s kit, said they were “extremely shocked” when the Chinese team, took to the field wearing shirts bearing the name of Evergrande Real Estate Group Ltd.’s insurance unit instead of Nissan’s Venucia T70 sport utility vehicle.
According to a statement by Nissan, the club “took the liberty of unilaterally changing and replacing the chest advertisement without our company’s consent.”
The firm had already rejected informal suggestions for the change, and only received a written request “one minute ahead of the game.”
The day after the game, Evergrande held a press conference to announce the real-estate developer had bought a 50 percent stake in Great Eastern Life Assurance Co.’s Chinese joint venture for 3.9 billion yuan ($610 million) and would rename it the Evergrande Real Estate Group Ltd – the news leading to a rise in Evergrande Real Estate shares on Monday and Tuesday.
On Tuesday an unnamed Evergrande executive told the AFP news agency that a statement had been prepared, “but we have so far refrained from publishing it because we don’t want the issue to be blown out of proportion,” and that it was hoped that “friendly consultations” would settle the issue.
Guangzhou Evergrande won the final 1-0 against Al Ahli from the United Arab Emirates. The first leg of the two-match final had been a 0-0 draw in Dubai.
Brazilian striker Elkeson scored the goal in the second half in front of more than 42,000 fans. Evergrande now go forward to next month’s FIFA Club World Cup in Japan under their Brazilian manager Luiz Felipe Scolari, who replaced Italian Fabio Cannavaro as the head coach in June. Evergrande have now gone 23 matches unbeaten.
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