Barcelona seek to terminate Nike contract over 'flagrant contract breaches'

Barcelona president Joan Laporta has revealed the club informed Nike of their intention to terminate their contract with the manufacturing giants over "flagrant breaches" of their contract.

The club have been on the hunt for a superior kit contract in recent weeks, with reports of growing tensions between Barcelona and Nike as their existing agreement approaches its final two years.

In the premiere of the Barca Studios podcast, Laporta went into further detail of the situation and confirmed Barcelona have agreed to give Nike more time to improve their terms.

"We told Nike that, based on breaches that for us were flagrant, we were terminating the contract," Laporta revealed.

"They had 45 days to compensate us, they did not do so and we informed them that the contract was being terminated, to which they responded with precautionary measures, to which we have responded and are now seeing the solution to these measures.

"They have tried to improve the contract, but they have made efforts that are not enough because we know that the market pays more.

"We are working in a civilised manner with all the options we have. We are convinced that we will have the best contract in the world. We are open to everything, but we cannot have a contract that is much lower than what the market pays. It is our responsibility as executive directors of the club to get the best contract.

"The easy thing would be to continue with Nike with a contract below the market, but sometimes the easy thing is not the best for the club."

Laporta went on to confirm that the club have several options going forward when it comes to their kit manufacturing deal.

"We are working to have the best equipment supplier contract in the world," he said. "Barca is the team that sells the most shirts and has to have the best contract on the market.

"We have three options on the table: the current supplier, with whom we have had a relationship for 27 years; we have offers from the market, we know what they would pay us, they are very interesting offers and we know them; and we have the line of business of BLM [Barca Licensing and Merchandising].

"In businesses with new technologies like with Barca Studios we need partners to help us, but not like this. BLM is lucky to know the market. We know what you can pay for the Barca shirt, the efforts that Nike is making to stay and, finally, the way of creating clothing and distributing it ourselves, which is not a utopia."

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