Liverpool FC dumps Adidas?
Friday, January 20th, 2012
One of the world’s most famous teams, the UK-based Liverpool FC has broken ties with German sportswear manufacturer Adidas, the club confirmed Wednesday.
Adidas may have missed the fine print on the aborted contract which implies a very impressive track record. Liverpool FC have claimed 18 league titles, 5 European Cup titles and have an unconfirmed global supporter base of at least half a billion fans.
Adidas claims it had “walked away” after negotiations failed to renew their supplier agreement had stalled. Sources close to Liverpool revealed that Adidas was “unhappy with performance” by Liverpool, claiming that such a historically successful team had not performed “good enough” in the season. Some skeptics however claim that because Liverpool FC’s ownership is rather a patriotic North American one, they had always wanted their investment to have a US and not German-owned supplier and as the merchandising agreement was about to expire and as a result Adidas pulled a stunt announcing that it would pull out of the agreement. “Adidas knew that Liverpool had not performed as it should have for some 20-years, so why did they sign a six-year deal earlier,” said 49-year-old Paul Smith, who claims to be one of Liverpool’s most avid supporters.
The club says they signed the outgoing agreement in 2006 but millions of fans worldwide would be indifferent to whether Adidas was the supplier or not as the brand “Liverpool” is what they have devoted their time, energy and money to and not the German paraphernalia manufacturer.
In a press statement Adidas’ CEO Herbert Hainer claimed that his company had walked out on the British club sponsorship agreement due to an “imbalance” in performance numbers on the field.
A source at the US-based John W. Henry’s Fenway Sports Group (which acquired Liverpool FC in the year of the last FIFA World Cup) said that the club had been going through a dry spell, but hoped that as one of the most successful European clubs the tide would turn in the new season. However, they have not won the English league for more than two decades and have recently been eclipsed by north-west rivals Manchester United, who also have American owners in the shape of the Glazer family.
But the owners believe that Liverpool’s partnership would only benefit under a new 6-year deal with the US Boston-based supplier Warrior Sports (established in 1992, better known for their ice-hockey paraphernalia, but relatively unknown to the soccer world as yet).
This may be Warrior Sports’ big break into the multi-billion dollar sport and the springboard of their activities in European soccer. Fans and club executives are said to unanimously agree that Adidas will suffer a major loss by chickening out of their sponsorship with Liverpool, despite the fact that the English team has not won a home league for more than 20 years. Nevertheless the new American connection (soccer fans in the US are allegedly increasing 10-fold per year) could be Liverpool’s biggest stunt to win exposure on the 300-million strong US market and further boost Liverpool’s global awareness.
In a press statement Richard Wright, General Manager of Warrior Sports said that his company is about to rock the world of football by piggy-back riding on of the world’s most loved and most successful soccer clubs. No matter who comes and goes in the world of merchandising one thing for sure, fans will always continue to chant that their club will “never walk alone.”
Ironically Adidas is currently in a legal dispute in Budapest, where Hungarian inventor Laszlo Oroszi has sued the German giant for their infringement of his patent. Oroszi claims that he had shown and offered to sell a special patented idea to Adidas’s Netherlands-based development chief Herbert Galoke (who has since retired). Although Adidas had “rejected” Oroszi’s idea, they built it into their predator soccer shoe range, making millions (during and after the Asian world cup).
