Barcelona and Nike set for world record deal that beats £75m adidas pay Manchester United annually as kit wars intensify
BARCELONA are set to enter a mammoth kit deal with American sportswear giant Nike, according to reports in Catalonia.
The eye-watering 10-year deal will be worth €100m annually, will become the biggest kit deal in world football, according to Catalan newspaper
Manchester United currently own the biggest deal in football, with Nike’s biggest rival adidas paying the club £75m-per-year - around €96m.
Barcelona, who won La Liga last weekend, are still to sign a sponsorship deal having ended their contract with Qatar Airways.
A deal is expected to be announced in the next two or three weeks, with Nike keen not to allow Barcelona back onto the market, where adidas or another rival firm would be desperate to sign them.
Barcelona’s shirt deal is latest in an ongoing battle between Nike and adidas for supremacy in the lucrative football kit market.
Real Madrid had been linked with a 10-year, £1bn deal that would have broke all records, but news has been quite on that deal since the start of the year. Reports claimed that the German brand were to pay Los Blancos €140m each year.
Nike are said to be completing this week as the sponsorship war between the two firms intensifies.
The Blues were unhappy at the treatment they received from adidas whose deal with United came very soon after Chelsea signed theirs.
The Blues were only paid £30m-per-year, but have now announced a deal with Nike worth £60m-a-year that will start in the 2017-18 deal.
Tottenham Hotspur are also currently in negotiation with Nike for a deal worth £30m annually, the same amount Arsenal receive from Puma. That kit deal, signed in 2013, was a record for a British club at the time.
Liverpool agreed a £300m deal with American brand New Balance in 2015.