By Andrew Warshaw
January 17 – Adidas, the world’s second biggest sporting goods manufacturer, decided not to renew its kit deal with Liverpool partly because the club were not being successful enough on the pitch.
The agreement expires at the end of this season and Liverpool have instead signed a club record £25 million ($38 million/€30 million) six-year contract with American company Warrior Sports, making it worth almost double the partnership with adidas.
Liverpool, five times European champions, have had little trophy success in recent years and have been rocked by two separate cases of alleged racist abuse, one involving striker Luis Suárez who is serving an eight-match ban.
Although the adidas decision had nothing to do with the abuse cases, the company said Liverpool were demanding unrealistic levels of money to renew the deal.
“The gap between their performance on the field and what the number should be is not in balance,” Herbert Hainer, adidas’ chief executive, told Bloomberg.
“Then we said, ‘OK we will not do it’.
“That’s the end of the story.
“It all depends on the success and the effort and the popularity, the exposure on TV, revenue you can generate by merchandising.”
“This all has to be brought in line between what you offer and what you get.
“We thought that what Liverpool were asking and what they were delivering was not in the right balance.”
Liverpool may not have won the English Premier League since 1990 but still command enormous commercial interest, however.
Adidas’ loss is Warrior’s gain, while Standard Chartered bank has agreed to pay a record £81.5 million ($125.3 million/€98.1 million) to have its logo displayed on the team’s shirts for four years.
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