New Balance Takes Legal Action Against Liverpool To Block Nike Deal
Today, we could confirm that Nike is set to make Liverpool's kits from 2020. Now it has been revealed that Liverpool’s current supplier New Balance has taken legal action against the club in a bid to retain the kit rights when the current contract expires in May 2020.
Believes Liverpool FC Disregarded Its Matching Offer Rights’
According to The Athletic sports news service, New Balance believes the club disregarded its ‘matching offer rights’ following a bid from sporting goods rival Nike for the period after the 2019-20 season.
New Balance insist that the matching offer clause in the current contract obliges Liverpool to give the incumbent brand an extension. Liverpool reportedly disagrees, hence New Balance’s filing of a dispute at the High Court earlier this month.
A Liverpool spokesman said: “We can confirm that our kit supplier, New Balance, has commenced a legal dispute against the club. We will not be making any further comment during these legal proceedings.”
The Athletic further reports that Liverpool does not accept New Balance’s bid as a contractually-binding matching offer ”because they [New Balance] can’t offer the same kind of global distribution network that Nike possesses. The Anfield hierarchy favour going with Nike as they will provide them with a greater presence in key markets across the world.”
The Liverpool Nike kit deal is reported to be worth close to the £75m ($93.4m/€85m) per year generated by Manchester United in its 10-year deal with Adidas, from 2015-16 to 2024-25. Liverpool’s current deal with New Balance is worth about £45m per year.
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