Adidas CEO confirms end of LFC relationship

Adidas CEO Herbert Hainer has confirmed that the sports manufacturer’s 18-year relationship with Liverpool FC will come to an end this summer.

It has been widely reported that Liverpool have signed a new deal with US based Warrior Sports, a subsidiary of New Balance Sports. We reported last week that the company had recently launched their Warrior Football website.

A report by Bloomberg News writes;

Liverpool has replaced Adidas with a club record, 6-year, 25 million pound ($38.3 million) contract with Warrior Sports, a subsidiary of New Balance Athletic Shoe Inc. The accord, Warrior’s first major soccer contract, begins next season and is worth almost double the current agreement with Adidas.

Hainer claims that the amount Liverpool wanted was not relative to their performance of late, with the club failing to achieve European qualification for the first time in over a decade last season.

“The gap between their performance on the field and what the number should be is not in balance. Then we said, ‘Okay we will not do it. That’s the end of the story.’”

The fact that Liverpool sell around 900,000 shirts annually, a number only beaten by Manchester United, Real Madrid and Barcelona, shows that adidas’ story doesn’t add up.

More from This Is Anfield

Fan Comments