It appears that Chelsea FC and adidas will end their kit sponsorship, six years in advance.
After a season in which Chelsea FC have gone from defending champions to a mid-table team that fired their manager at the beginning of the year, things haven’t gone the clubs way.
To add to the teams woes, their kit maker adidas has agreed to mutually terminate the contract between the two that would’ve saw the apparel company create the clubs kits until June 30, 2023. According to adidas, the company will stop making Chelsea kits on June 30, 2017 and the club will be free to find a new kit producer.
The company said in a statement that both sides agreed to end the deal early and that, “It will allow adidas AG to continue to implement its sports sponsorship strategy as set out on its strategic business plan ‘Creating the New’.
“As compensation for the early termination of the contract, the adidas Group will receive a payment from Chelsea Football Club in 2017 that will positively impact the Group’s net income this year.”
Chelsea have dawned the three strips of adidas since 2006, and have gone on to win two Premier League titles and a UEFA Champions League in 2012 in that span.
This termination comes after the two agreed to the biggest kit deal in the history of the Barclays Premier League in 2013, in which Chelsea earned £300 million or £30 million a year. The deal fell a million pounds short of the adidas deal with Real Madrid, that see’s that Spanish giants earn £31 million a year.
Now with Chelsea without a kit sponsor after the 2016/17 season, the London club will need to look at other options. Maybe Nike will splash the cash to design the club’s kits. Maybe Puma, who spent £170 million on their agreement with rivals Arsenal, will make an offer. Who knows which company will design Chelsea’s kits in the future. But this does add to the list of things Chelsea will need to do to regain its superpower stature.
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