Drama continues to swirl over high-profile national soccer team kit contracts, with the latest news coming out of Brazil.
Brazilian news outlet UOL reported on Monday, May 6, that the Confederação Brasileira de Futebol (CBF) is considering moving away from Nike as their national team kit supplier after receiving a massive contract offer of R$1 billion ($197 million US) a year from a competitor. UOL says that both Adidas and Puma are in the running for the contract, but could not confirm which company made the offer.
The new contract offer is more than five times the amount the CBF currently gets from Nike, which is around $35 million US.
Nike has produced Brazil’s kits since 1997. The country traditionally wears yellow home kits and blue away kits.
A major bone of contention between the CBF and Nike, though, is the payment of royalties on jersey sales. Nike currently doesn’t share any portion of shirt sales with the CBF. The CBF has asked Nike to amend their contract to gain a portion of the sales, but Nike has reportedly refused. The CBF has also asked Nike for better promotion of their brand, including setting up shops, but that has also been denied.
The news of the Brazil offer comes in the wake of the Deutscher Foosball-Bund announcing in March that German national teams would be outfitted by Nike starting in 2027, ending a decades-long partnership with Adidas. Nike also managed to hold on to the contract for the French national teams, with an extension until 2034 announced in April.
