By Andrew Warshaw
January 28 – In a financial deal described as the biggest in the club’s history, English Premier League leaders Arsenal have received a potentially game-changing boost by switching its kit supplier to Puma from Nike as of next season after two decades with the US sportswear giant.
Reports estimate the value of the five-year deal could be as much as £30 million a year, ensuring the club keeps pace not only with their big-spending domestic rivals but Europe’s major powers.
The current mid-season transfer window ends on Friday and while Arsenal have so far held off re-inforcing, the new deal will almost certainly mean fresh investments in the summer.
Just as they have remained loyal to manager Arsene Wenger, so Arsenal have stayed with the same manufacturer for a generation, last switching in 1994 when Nike took over from Adidas.
Puma, who supply kit to two other Premier League clubs as well as Borussia Dortmund and the Italian national team, will officially be seen on Arsenal’s kit from July 1 in a bid to establish itself as the third major football brand behind Adidas and Nike.
“Arsenal represents a major commercial and marketing opportunity to reinforce Puma’s credibility as a global sports brand,” the German company’s chief executive Bjoern Gulden (pictured left with Ivan Gazidis) said in a statement.
In recent seasons, apart from the occasional stellar signing, Wenger has hamstrung by strict spending restrictions imposed by the Arsenal board as the club pays off its state-of-the-art Emirates stadium.
But the completion of those payments allowed Wenger to break Arsenal’s transfer record last summer with a £42.5 million deal for Mesut Özil and the new kit deal will enable them to spend even far more freely in the future – as well as almost certainly hang on to their French manager whose contract is set to expire at the end of the season.
“We will invest in not just big-name signings but also right across the club – in the youth academy, scouting network, facilities,” said Arsenal chief executive Ivan Gazidis.
Without a trophy since 2005, Arsenal came eighth in the annual money table of the world’s richest clubs published last week by accountancy specialists Deloitte. But all this could be about to change.
“The football landscape has changed dramatically over the last decade and Arsenal has made some difficult decisions along the way to put ourselves in a position to compete in the longer term,” Gazidis added.
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